As civilian casualties mount in wars from Gaza to Sudan, the Holy See’s top diplomat at the United Nations issued a forceful call for nations to prioritize human dignity over military escalation, urging stricter adherence to international law and concrete steps to curb weapons proliferation.
Newsroom (May 29, 2025, 09:15, Gaudium Press) Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican’s Permanent Observer to the UN, delivered the appeal during a May 22 Security Council debate on civilian protection in armed conflicts. His remarks came as the UN reported over 36,000 documented civilian deaths in 14 major conflicts last year—a figure experts warn is a severe undercount.
“Civilians Are Not Collateral Damage”
“The human person must never be treated as expendable, or reduced to mere collateral damage,” Caccia declared, condemning widespread violations of the Geneva Conventions. He highlighted deliberate attacks on noncombatants, including women, children, and aid workers, as well as the destruction of hospitals, schools, and religious sites—practices he called “a grave affront to international security.”
With over 120 active conflicts worldwide, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s siege of Gaza, and gang violence paralyzing Haiti, the archbishop warned that modern warfare is increasingly eroding humanitarian safeguards.
Weapons Bans and “Meaningful Human Control”
Archbishop Caccia also noted “the evolving nature of contemporary warfare” and its role in eroding civilian protections.
He said the Holy See viewed it as essential to end the use of “indiscriminate weapons, landmines and cluster munitions” and halt “the deployment of explosive weapons in populated areas.
“This together with the cessation of arms production and stockpiling constitute concrete and urgent steps towards a better protection of civilians,” he said, calling for the implementation of the U.N.’s declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, while commending the U.N.’s Mine Action Service.
For that reason, he said, “The Holy See therefore strongly supports the proposal of a legally binding instrument prohibiting lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) by 2026.
Context: The Vatican’s UN Role
Since establishing formal ties with the UN in 1957, the Holy See has used its observer status to advocate for conflict prevention, disarmament, and human rights. Pope Francis has repeatedly decried the “third world war fought piecemeal,” with this latest intervention reinforcing the Church’s diplomatic focus on protecting the vulnerable in an era of fragmented warfare.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from OSV News
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