Twenty-five years ago last Wednesday, the Holy See presented the 'Charter of the Rights of the Family' to all governments and the international community.

This was a milestone in the history of humanity, because these rights are enshrined in 'the conscience of the human being and in the common values of all humanity'.

Just as 60 years ago society needed the United Nation's Declaration of the Human Rights, the Charter of the Rights of the Family was a must. Certain states exerted absolute powers over the family with the consequence of violating fundamental rights.

The charter reminds us that we cannot invent the family. The family is given to us; it is inscribed in the heart of every human being.

It is that 'intimate union of life in 'complementarity' between a man and a woman which is constituted in the freely contracted and publicly expressed indissoluble bond of matrimony, and is open to the transmission of life'. The charter clearly expresses that the family comes before the state and so it possesses inherent rights which are inalienable. Hence, the state cannot go against them.

In just 12 articles, the charter delineates very vividly what the fundamental rights of every family are.

May all of us rejoice that the human community has arrived at this level of maturity.

Now let us implement them for the development of a healthy family policy.