VATICAN CITY
Catholic Free Press
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican formally criticized a U.N. committee’s “grave misunderstanding” of state sovereignty and reiterated its concerns over “controversial new expressions” that threaten the unborn and religious freedom.
By insisting the Holy See should enforce the compliance of Catholics all over the world with international treaties signed by the Vatican, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child “offers a controversial new approach to ‘jurisdiction,’ which clearly contradicts the general understanding of this concept of international law.”
“The Holy See, in accordance with the rules of international law, is aware that attempting to implement the C.R.C. (Convention on the Rights of the Child) in the territory of other states could constitute a violation of the principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of states,” the Vatican said in a formal written response to the U.N. committee.
The Vatican published its official response to the U.N.’s committee on children’s rights Sept. 26 on its website.
On Feb. 5, the U.N. committee released its “concluding observations” and concerns as part of its ongoing process of monitoring states parties’ adherence to the treaty; the Vatican ratified the children’s rights treaty in 1990, making it one of the first countries to do so.
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