Disarming With "a Human Approach"

The Vatican has a permanent observer at the United Nations. Last week, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, addressed the 63rd U.N. General Assembly about the still pressing need for nations to disarm. He called for "a human approach" to it because each human being

is the ultimate aim of all public policies, arms regulation, disarmament and non-proliferation must have an interdisciplinary or, more importantly, a human approach.Without considering the social, economical, psychological and ethical impact of armaments, policies on disarmament and non-proliferation become a game of armed truce between States.

Archbishop Migliore, near the conclusion of his address noted the "enhanced complexity of the arms trade," cited two resolutions made by the General Assembly and linked "disarmament"

with more general problems, such as the reform of this Organisation, the procedural and structural reform of the Conference on Disarmament, the tendency of overlapping the civil and military economies and the scarce coherence of the policies adopted in the strategic sectors.

Humans need coherence. Without it individuals, families, societies, cultures and the entire globe suffer.