The purpose of international organisations is to promote the “common good”. All nations’ interest must be protected regardless of their size, resources or culture by international organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations and Department for International Development.

One of the key mechanisms for ensuring that this is done is through laws which seek to regulate the international community. However, while it is necessary to have regulations which seek to guide the actions of and interactions of states, it is important to ensure that individual states still maintain their right to regulate themselves.

The Compendium tells us “Political authority exercised at the level of the international community must be regulated by law, ordered to the common good and respectful of the principle of subsidiarity.

The public authority of the world community is not intended to limit the sphere of action of the public authority of the individual political community, much less to take its place.” 

The purpose of law is to ensure that the global environment exists for each country to fulfil its duty to the world and to its citizens. The point is while we are seeking the international common good, the individual country, community or person cannot be forgotten, or in fact take centre stage.

“On the contrary, its purpose is to create, on a world basis, an environment in which the public authorities of each political community, their citizens and intermediate associations can carry out their tasks, fulfil their duties and exercise their rights with greater security”.”

We are all familiar with the phrase “the world is a global village”. What happens in one country affects many others. We see this with oil prices; when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) restricts oil production, the price of fuel and energy goes up for all countries worldwide which has implications for inflation rates and costs of living.

Countries share land and sea boundaries and these are often the source of dispute for many countries. In Trinidad and Tobago the flying fish issue with Barbados comes to mind.

Therefore “Because of the globalisation of problems, it has become more urgent than ever to stimulate international political action that pursues the goals of peace and development through the adoption of coordinated measures.”

“The Magisterium recognises that the interdependence among men and nations takes on a moral dimension and is the determining factor for relations in the modern world in the economic, cultural, political and religious sense.”

In this context it is hoped that there will be a revision of international organisations, a process that “presupposes the overcoming of political rivalries and the renouncing of all desire to manipulate these organizations, which exist solely for the common good”, for the purpose of achieving “a greater degree of international ordering”.”

We are also warned though that there is a need for ensuring that the concerns or priorities of more powerful nations do not supercede those of others. Also they should not be allowed to shoulder all the responsibility of achieving the common good. The point is that achieving the common good can only be a collective effort and no one state’s responsibility.

“In particular, intergovernmental structures must effectively perform their functions of control and guidance in the economic field because the attainment of the common good has become a goal that is beyond the reach of individual States, even if they are dominant in terms of power, wealth, and political strength.

International agencies must moreover guarantee the attainment of that equality which is the basis of the right of all to participate in the process of full development, duly respecting legitimate differences.”

Next week we look at the role of civil society in the international community. 

Persons interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, can contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680. Also on sale at the Justice Desk are the Take a Bite Social Justice Programme on DVD and Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching.