ROME, 5 (NE)

    "It is today a fashion to talk about the defense of human rights", but this expression runs the risk of becoming devaluated by being used in an abusive way "when concrete commitments do not follow the proclamation", stressed this week Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of Dili (East Timor). The Prelate offered a conference during the opening session of the World Congress of Doctors, being held in Rome these days.

    Speaking about human rights and health care, Bishop Belo stated that "human rights are not a fashion", expressing his concern for the fact that "human rights continue to be violated everywhere, in spite of so many conventions, seminaries and conferences". Addressing the doctors participating at the world congress, the Prelate stressed that "if well followed, the deontological norms of medicine constitute a complete scheme for the defense and protection of human rights".

    "Respecting human rights, both social and individual" Bishop Belo recalled, "we work to create a sane public health, harmonious, mature and balanced". Therefore, he finally stressed, "it is fundamental to insist in the respect for the person, for the individual, without discriminations for social class or origin".

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