Therefore, the U.S. Catholic Conference urges ratification not only because of our interest in strengthening the international consensus as to the substantive dimensions of human rights, but also because of our interest in seeing the United States participate in the structures that have been established under these treaties to begin implementation of the substantive provisions.

We note that the Optional Protocol to The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is not presently before this Committee. The Optional Protocol is a specific measure for implementing the rights articulated in the Covenant, giving to aggrieved individuals access to the U.N. Human Rights Committee once they have exhausted domestic remedies. The procedures defined are carefully drafted to respect the remedies for violations that the State Party may provide and to give the State Party sufficient time to explain, clarify or remedy the matter. In our view, the Optional Protocol is a necessary complement to the Covenant, and we recommend its early consideration.

The Conference promotes U.S. participation in these implementing structures for several reasons. First, the continued United States absence from these fora raises fundamental questions about the commitment of the United States not only to the universal application of the principles these treaties espouse, but also to the effort to work within the international community to render them effective. We are aware of the embarrassment caused the United States within the international community by the failure to ratify these instruments. But we are aware as well of the growing embarrassment of many within the American community because our government has failed to ratify these treaties. It is becoming increasingly difficult to justify non-ratification without resort to reasons based on arrogance, isolationism, or a too narrowly ideological approach to the definition of human rights. To escape that narrow ideology, we would recommend the remarks made by Pope John Paul II at the United Nations:

"*** the fundamental criterion for comparing social, economic and political systems is not, and cannot be, the criterion of hegemony and imperialism; it can be, and indeed it must be, the humanistic criterion, namely the measure in which each system is really capable of reducing, restraining and eliminating as far as possible the various forms of exploitation of man and of ensuring for him through work, not only the just distribution of the indispensable material goods, but also a participation, in keeping with his dignity, in the whole process of production and in the social life that grows up around that process.'

Second, we believe that U.S. participation in the ongoing process of interpretation and implementation based on acceptance of the international standards can assist this nation in the areas of both U.S. foreign and U.S. domestic policy. The U.S. Catholic Conference has consistently supported the integration of the human rights factor in the foreign policy decisionmaking process. The international human rights standards provide a strong foundation for that policy and an internationally accepted standard on which to base it. Acceptance of the broader international standard is one means of avoiding the insensitivity that can result from a narrowly ideological approach to the understanding of human rights, that is, a tendency to give a priority of civil and political rights over economic, social and cultural rights.

The present Administration has said that its human rights concern incorporates three important sets of rights; however, it is fair to say that the United States has only begun to deal with the question of how to weigh the economic and social rights in relation to civil and political rights. This is a difficult challenge and one admittedly made more difficult by the ideological conflict that underlies the separation of the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into two international covenants. However, there is little to be gained by ignoring the issue; much to be gained by addressing the issue within international structures established for this purpose. The U.S. Catholic Conference believes that it is in the interest of the United States to pursue seriously, with others, ways to reconcile the apparent conflict between these sets of rights. It is our belief that this nation is morally and legally committed to do so; it is our belief that it is also politically advisable to do so.

The Conference supports the international standards for the sake of U.S. domestic policy as well. The ongoing international dialogue on the interpretation and implementation of human rights, and the broadening of the understanding as to the full spectrum of rights encompassed by that term can enhance our government's ability to promote that full spectrum of rights here at home.

One has only to look at those articles to which reservations, declarations and understandings were attached in the Letters of Transmittal to note areas wherein this country is not in conformity with the international standards. We detect no

impetus in the Letters of Transmittal to bring this nation into conformity. In particular, we would note in this regard, the recommended declaration that the treaties are not self-executing. We would also note the number of declarations, understandings and reservations which are recommended, a number exceeding that of any other ratifying state. We are not suggesting that every reservation is unwarranted. Nor are we suggesting that the human rights record of this nation is dismal, quite the contrary on this latter point. As Pope John Paul II noted in his address at Battery Park, October 4, 1979: "It will always remain one of the glorious achievements of this nation that, when people looked toward America, they receive together with freedom also a chance for their own advancement. This tradition must be honored also today." We are suggesting, however, an awareness that the U.S. record is not perfect, that there is room for improvement.

The appropriate response to the growing awareness that the United States is not without its own human rights problems is to accept the challenge to improvement represented by these international treaties and begin the process of bringing the laws and practices of the United States into conformity with the international standards. We urge you to accept the challenge. As Pope John Paul II went on to say at Battery Park:

"The freedom that was gained must be ratified each day by the firm rejection of whatever wounds, weakens or dishonors human life. And so I appeal to all who love freedom and justice to give a chance to all in need, to the poor and the powerless. Break open the hopeless cycles of poverty and ignorance that are still the lot of too many of our brothers and sisters; the hopeless cycles of prejudices that linger on despite enormous progress toward effective equality in education and employment; the cycles of underdevelopment that are the consequence of international mechanisms that subordinate human existence to the domination of partially conceived economic progress; and finally the inhuman cycle of war that springs from the violation of man's fundamental rights and produces still graver violation of them.

"Freedom in justice will bring a new dawn of hope for the present generation as it has done before: for the homeless, for the unemployed, for the aging, for the sick and the handicapped, for the migrants and the undocumented workers, for all who hunger for human dignity in this land and in the world."

We consider the American Catholic community willing to accept that challenge, and we suspect that is true of the American people at large. In October of 1976, the American Catholic community met for the first time in a national assembly. That assembly of our church brought together more than 1300 representatives from dioceses and Catholic organizations across the country. The assembly was the culmination of the Catholic community's reflections on the American society on the occasion of this nation's bicentennial. There emerged from that Representative assembly a resolution addressed to the subject we deal with today. That resolution states:

"That the NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops), through the offices of Justice and Peace and other appropriate groups available to them, urge individual Catholics and other citizens to convince their local political representatives to urge the United States to ratify the U.N. Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Social and Economic Rights."

(A Call to Action, p. 75)

This was one of a series of resolutions addressed to "The Defense of Human Rights." Within that series of resolutions were many references to rights included within the economic and social sphere, such as, rights to adequate diet, to health care, and to employment.

We see evidence of a growing awareness, both here and in the international community, that civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, along with those rights that address the security and integrity of the person, form one body of rights. This growing awareness is based not only on the perception of the relationship of all these rights to human dignity. It is also based on the growing experience of the interrelatedness of these rights in the practical order. U.S. ratification of these human rights treaties could be a means of solidifying gains already made in this area and a means of maintaining momentum in bringing to fruition the task of reconciling the apparent conflict between these sets of rights in the order of implementation.

The U.S. Catholic Conference urges ratification of the treaties presently before this Committee. We recommend early consideration of the Optional Protocol. We take this opportunity to again urge ratification of the Genocide Convention. We recognize the effect such ratification will have within the international com

munity, where these treaties have taken on symbolic import. No political person ignores the utility of symbol. But in moral terms a symbol must have substance. Therefore, we also urge a careful review of the reservations, declarations and understandings that will eventually accompany U.S. ratification of these treaties. We hope that the instrument of ratification that emerges from the consideration of these treaties in this body reflect a true commitment by this government to promote the human rights standards they establish both at home and abroad. The Catholic Conference pledges our continued support in these efforts.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS

POPE JOHN PAUL II

TO THE XXXIV GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Mr. President,

1. I desire to express my gratitude to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which I am permitted today to participate in and to address. My thanks go in the first place to the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, Dr. Kurt Waldheim. Last autumn, soon after my election to the Chair of Saint Peter, he invited me to make this visit, and he renewed his invitation in the course of our meeting in Rome last May. From the first moment I felt greatly honoured and deeply obliged. And today, before this distinguished Assembly, I also thank you, Mr. President, who have so kindly welcomed me and invited me to speak.

2.

The formal reason for my intervention today is, without any question, the special bond of cooperation that links the Apostolic See with the United Nations Organization, as is shown by the presence of the Holy See's Permanent Observer to this Organization. The existence of this bond, which is held in high esteem by the Holy See, rests on the sovereignty with which the Apostolic See has been endowed for many centuries. The territorial extent of that sovereignty is limited to the small State of Vatican City, but the sovereignty itself is warranted by the need of the papacy to exercise its mission in full freedom, and to be able to deal with any interlocutor, whether a government or an international organization, without dependence on other sovereignties. Of course the nature and aims of the spiritual mission of the Apostolic See and the Church make their participation in the tasks and activities of the United Nations Organization very different from that of the States, which are communities in the political and temporal sense.

3.

Besides attaching great importance to its collaboration with the United Nations Organization, the Apostolic See has always, since the

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