UN General Assembly
1982

questioned for it is the only authority empowered to decide on the guilt of those involved and to apply the necessary penalties. 8. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, in his pontifical message of 1980, reminded us that building peace is the task of all men and all nations and that violence is an evil unworthy of man, unacceptable as a solution to our problems, contrary to the truth of our humanity and, indeed, destructive of what it seeks to defend: the dignity, life and freedom of the human being. But he told us also: "We cannot sincerely condemn recourse to violence unless we engage in a corresponding effort to replace it by courageous political initiatives which aim at eliminating threats to peace by attacking the roots of injustice." That is precisely what the Government of Peru is seeking to do at the domestic level. 9. Hence, together with the legitimate exercise of its constitutional responsibilities, the Government is pursuing a set of activities designed to bring about improvement in the depressed economic and social conditions of the