Respect rights

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Combating terrorism and protecting national security can never trump fundamental human rights.

That should be the position of our country and every American. It's certainly the position of the Catholic Church, as explained by Abp. Celestino Migliore, Vatican ambassador to the United Nations, in comments Oct. 16 to a U.N. committee considering a proposed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

Effective counterterrorism measures and protecting human rights are not conflicting goals, Abp. Migliore said. "Indeed the former must serve the latter, because the protection of human rights is the primary objective of any counterterrorism strategy. The absolute unacceptability of terrorism lies precisely in the fact that it uses innocent people as means to obtain its ends, thus showing contempt and utter disregard for human life and dignity."

But if states fail to protect human rights their own moral standing diminishes and terrorists use that to "justify their aberrant behavior," Abp. Migliore said. Plus, the trampling of human rights and long-term tolerance of injustice make it easier for terrorists to recruit, he said.

It's blatantly wrong to say that terrorists act on behalf of the poor, he said, because the poor suffer the most when terrorists cause the radical breakdown of order.

An anti-terrorist convention must "make clear that no cause, no matter how just, can excuse or legitimize the deliberate killing or maiming of civilian populations," he said.

And captured terrorists or terrorist suspects must be given basic human rights, Abp. Migliore said. "Not even the terrorists' contempt for human life and dignity can justify denying them treatment according to international humanitarian and human rights norms."

Because so much terrorism centers around a "cynical abuse of religion," Abp. Migliore said, "Religions and interreligious dialogue have a fundamental role to play in contrasting the terrorists' preaching of hate and violence as antithetical to authentic religion, in promoting a culture of peace and mutual respect and in helping people with grievances to opt for nonviolent means." That means states and the international community must foster "an environment in which religions and interfaith dialogue can flourish," he said.

While Abp. Migliore didn't mention the United States, what he said certainly applies. America has long been seen as setting the standard for treating individuals justly. We must never allow an ends-justifies-the-means situation ethics to compromise our country's code of justice or our moral standing. Our actions must set us apart from the terrorists, whom we must defeat by legal and moral methods.