Every state has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If states are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations charter and in other international instruments.
The Pope insisted that national sovereignty could not be used as a defence by repressive states to prevent international action.
The action of the international community and its institutions . . . should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage, he said.
Pope calls on UN to do more to stop abuse of human rights -Times Online
