Pope Francis: Lawfare endangers democracy, is used politically and to violate social rights
Last edited Fri Jun 7, 2019, 12:20 AM - Edit history (1)
In a speech to some 100 judges from countries across the Western Hemisphere at the end of a two-day Vatican conference (June 3-4) on “Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine,” Pope Francis emphasized the crucial role of judges in protecting and enforcing the social, economic and cultural rights of people.
“It seems that the constitutional guarantees and the international treaties that have been ratified have in practice no universal value,” the pontiff lamented.
Pope Francis said that, for a political economic system “to develop in a healthy way,” it “needs to guarantee that democracy is more than only nominal”
“There is no democracy when there is hunger, there is not development when there is poverty, there is not justice when there is inequality.”
Pope Francis also spoke of the growing trend of weaponizing the judiciary against critics and opponents - a clear signal to his native Argentina.
President Mauricio Macri, politically aligned and personally close to U.S President Donald Trump, was recently revealed to be using “a web of illegal intelligence operations” against opponents - particularly former President Cristina Kirchner, who is currently running for vice president on a center-left ticket polling ahead of Macri's by double digits.
“A new form of external intervention in the political scenarios of countries through the improper use of legal procedures and judicial formulations.”
“This ‘lawfare,’ besides endangering democracies, is generally used to undermine emerging political processes and tends to systematically violate social rights.”
“In order to guarantee the institutional quality of states, it is essential to identify and neutralize these types of practices - which derive from wrongful judicial activity combined with parallel multimedia operations.”
At: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/06/04/pope-francis-judges-there-no-justice-when-there-inequality
Pope Francis, during his meetings with Argentine President Mauricio Macri (left) and Donald Trump.
He warned that “lawfare” - the practice of weaponizing the judiciary against critics and opponents - “besides endangering democracies, is generally used to undermine emerging political processes and tends to systematically violate social rights.”
