Drets humans

What can we say to close out the year that would not sound banal? How do we choose words that avoid falling into discouragement or nihilism? How do we sustain hope? Faced with this avalanche of reality, we cannot remain self-contained. We just cannot. Without a doubt, it is incumbent upon us to analyze reality, to try to comprehend it, to inform ourselves in order to know what part of comes closest to us, and, above all, to allow ourselves to be moved by it.

June 24, 2022, will go down in history as a day of infamy. In the morning of that day dozens of persons were killed, and more than a hundred were injured as they tried to cross the border fences separating Nador (Morocco) and Melilla (Spain). The images of their lifeless bodies, piled up as if they were animals, have been burned into our retinas. The videos recording the brutality and indifference of the Moroccan police stirred our indignation. Now, a few months after the event, we offer this reflection in order to recall that barbarity and to delve into its meaning.

There are things that are not within our reach, especially now, but it is within our reach to listen and to be attentive to the reality that confronts us. This reality requires us to place ourselves among the people, to draw close to those who suffer, and to do so with urgency. It requires us to help those who have been forced to leave their homes without knowing if they will ever be able to return.

Visualizing “forgotten conflicts” is framed in the attempt by changing the focus and shifting it to situations that lack immediacy and that need to be visualized so that they do not fall into oblivion. In these pages that follow, you will find five extensive articles that review the causes, the development and possible future events in five countries in conflict.

Throughout history, God acts and shows himself in many ways, and especially in his martyred male and female friends. Even at the cost of their lives such women undeniably witness to the identification and rejection of political systems that turn their backs on the most basic huuman rights. This booklet seeks to further their recognition and help us understand why such apparently fragilebeings should have come to threaten those who are powerful in worldly terms.

A few months ago in Madrid, I came across a Bolivian woman who had emigrated to Spain, where she was living without any documentation, and was therefore living outside the law in her new home. I askedher why she had abandoned Bolivia. “In Bolivia” –she told me– “nobodywas concerned about me. The State offered no sort of provisions for elderly citizens and if I had stayed, I would have spent the rest of mydays living in poverty and insecurity”.