UNITED NATIONS, April 18: Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday that respect for human rights was key to solving many of the world’s problems, while cautioning that international cooperation was threatened by “the decisions of a small number.”

“The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups and increasing security,” the Pope told the packed United Nations General Assembly hall on his first visit to the world body.

He said the work of the world body was vital, and expressed concerns that power was concentrated in a few hands.

“Multilateral consensus continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a small number,” he added.

He said that the world’s problems called for collective interventions by the international community.

“Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace,” the 81-year-old pontiff said.

“A vision of life firmly anchored in the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favours conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war and to promote justice and peace,” he said.

“Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communicating a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer”, he added.

Noting that the “the activity of the United Nations in recent years has ensured that public debate gives space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its dimensions, including ritual, worship, education, dissemination of information and the freedom to profess and choose religion,” the Pope asserted: “It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves their faith in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.”

He said that “the rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order.

The Pope was introduced secretary general by Ban Ki-moon, who called the United Nations a “home to all men and women of faith around the world.”

Mr Ban said the Pope supported many of the goals of the United Nations, such as climate change, world peace, eradication of poverty, and maintaining dialogue among the world’s religions.