The Vatican’s contribution to a high-level UN meeting stressed that laws must be derived from principles of justice that recognise the transcendent value of the human person.

Human dignity, justice and the rule of law

Dominique Mamberti 

As the Syrian civil war continued to claim victims and fall-out from an anti-Muslim video and French cartoons further soured relations between Islamic and western states, the 67th General Assembly of the United Nations took place last week under the broad theme of the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

The assembly included, to quote the UN, a “first-ever high-level meeting on the rule of law at the national and international levels”. States representatives debated a prepared declaration that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hoped would lead to specific goals and concrete action on dispute resolution, empowering women and children, strengthening housing and property rights, and protecting victims of war crimes.

In fact, as the Guardian reported, the meeting could not even agree on what the rule of law means and so barely addressed particular issues.

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