at the United Nations on Thursday. If you’re too busy to read it, a brief summary of his main points: The Pope started out by highlighting the paradox between the unfair weight given to “the decisions of a few” and the need for “collective action by the international community” to address global problems. He rejected the notion that international rules limit freedom or challenge sovereignty, and he further espoused the principle of the “responsibility to protect.” He argued that each state has the “primary duty” to protect its own people, but that if any state is “unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene.” He ended by endorsing human rights as “the ethical substratum of international relations,” reasoning that human rights can help evaluate discern the difference between “justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and conflict” by serving as “measures of the common good.”
Of course, to some extent the Pope’s speech is a standard one, upholding the principles of the United Nations Charter and calling for a rededication to multilateralism. But harking back to the rules of the post-World War II era will not help us solve the problems the UN faces today.