Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children
New York, 9-11 October 2018 – Statement by H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See:
“Millions of children of all ages, races and cultures, and regardless of socioeconomic status or geography, are victims of various forms of violence, mistreatment, exploitation and abuse. No effort must be spared to create a culture capable of protecting the young and vulnerable.
Children on the move, in particular, are often forgotten or ignored. As Pope Francis has pointed out, “Among migrants, children constitute the most vulnerable group, because as they face the life ahead of them, they are invisible and voiceless: their precarious situation deprives them of documentation, hiding them from the world’s eyes; the absence of adults to accompany them prevents their voices from being raised and heard. In this way, migrant children easily end up at the lowest levels of human degradation, where illegality and violence destroy the future of too many innocents, while the network of child abuse is difficult to break up.”
