Finacial crises could affect entire societies, particularly children says Vatican official

(24.02.09):-The world financial crisis has created a global recession, causing dramatic social consequences, including the loss of millions of jobs, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations. In his address at the Special Session of the Human Rights Council, 20 Feb. on the theme : -“The Impact of the global economic and financial crises on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of Human Rights”, Archbishop Tomasi noted that in a recent document, the World Bank estimates that in 2009, the current global economic crises could push an additional 53 million people below the threshold of 2 dollars a day. This figure is in addition to the 130 million people pushed into poverty in 2008 by the increase in food and energy prices, he said. The Archbishop lamented that children in particular, would suffer the most from the economic hardship.
Next, noting that low-income countries are heavily dependent upon two financing flows – foreign aid and migrant remittances, the prelate said that both flows are expected to decline significantly over the next months due to the worsening of the economic crises. Noting that periods of severe economic hardship have been characterized by the rise in power of governments with dubious commitments to democracy, Archbishop Tomasi hoped that such consequences will be avoided in the present crises, since they would result in a serious threat for the diffusion of human rights and would affect entire societies, especially the rights of children to food and education.