United Nations

Aborting a child with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is a gross violation of human rights and anti-discriminatory commitments, and can be considered genocide, according to speakers at a March 20 panel at the United Nations.

Mely Lenario spoke March 13 on “Preventing Human Trafficking Among Rural Women and Girls,” a panel co-sponsored by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.

During a U.N. Security Council open debate Nov. 21 on human trafficking in conflict situations, Archbishop Bernardito Auza said as wars and conflicts rage, “trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation, forced labor and similar crimes will continue to flourish.”

For more than 70 years, the popes and Catholic leaders around the globe have echoed the judgment that the nuclear bomb as “the most terrible weapon that the human mind has ever conceived.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized the United Nations’ efforts to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East in a speech Oct. 25.

Speakers at a Sept. 11 prayer service on the eve of the opening of the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly said the memory of the vibrant lives of the diverse workers at the World Trade Center towers that day 16 years ago and the selfless heroism of those who came to their aid are reflected in the daily challenges of those who strive for unity, tolerance and compassion.

Conflict and drought are threatening more than 20 million people in four countries with the prospect of famine, and the U.N. has called this food crisis the largest humanitarian crisis since the world body was formed more than 70 years ago.

The passage of a United Nations treaty banning the possession of nuclear weapons comes at a time when the majority of world’s nations are frustrated with the slow pace of nuclear disarmament. The final tally saw 122 nations voting for the ban.