394 Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale

III

Ad Sessionem Nationum Unitarum tractantem de instrumento iure obstricto ad interdicenda arma atomica (27-31 Martii).

To Her Excellency Elayne Whyte Gómez President of the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination

I extend cordial greetings to you, Madam President, and to all the

representatives of the various nations and international organizations, and

of civil society participating in this Conference. I wish to encourage you

to work with determination in order to promote the conditions necessary

for a world without nuclear weapons.

On 25 September 2015, before the General Assembly of the United

Nations, I emphasized what the Preamble and first Article of the United

Nations Charter indicate as the foundations of the international juridical

framework: peace, the pacific solution of disputes and the development of

friendly relations between nations. An ethics and a law based on the threat

of mutual destruction - and possibly the destruction of all mankind - are

contradictory to the very spirit of the United Nations. We must therefore

commit ourselves to a world without nuclear weapons, by fully implementing

the Non-Proliferation Treaty, both in letter and spirit (cf. Address to the

General Assembly of the United Nations, 25 September 2015).

But why give ourselves this demanding and forward-looking goal in

the present international context characterized by an unstable climate of

conflict, which is both cause and indication of the difficulties encountered

in advancing and strengthening the process of nuclear disarmament and

nuclear non-proliferation?

If we take into consideration the principal threats to peace and security

with their many dimensions in this multipolar world of the twenty-first

century as, for example, terrorism, asymmetrical conflicts, cybersecurity,

environmental problems, poverty, not a few doubts arise regarding the in-

adequacy of nuclear deterrence as an effective response to such challenges.