(Rivista Internazionale - December 1994: The Order of Malta Observer at the UN Assembly - 2/2)

New York. Il Conte Don Carlo Marullo di Condojanni al seggio dell'Ordine nella sede delle Nazioni Unite, in occasione dell'insediamento dell'Ordine come Osservatore all'Assemblea Generale.

The Order's participation in the works of the UN, on the same level and with the same rights as the Council of Europe, the International Red Cross and the Community of Independent States mean that no one will be able to oppose its recognised sovereignty of international law in all those activities over and above its basic humanitarian mission - which authorises it to create knights, confer decorations, mint coins and issue stamps. Like all other sovereign States and to the mortification of those who, without any right and often even against the law, imitate many of its initiatives.

Zaire. Il Campo profughi di Bukavu con alcuni volontari delle Opere Ospedaliere Francesi dell'Ordine (OHFOM) che assistono i bambini ruandesi sfuggiti agli aspri scontri etnici nel loro paese.

Often censured by the Prince and Grand Master in his annual discourses to the Diplomatic Corps, these groups can no longer claim any authority and pseudo-heraldic precedent when - falsifying emblems, titles and honours - they exploit the ingenuous by emulating, for base profit-making aims, the name and rituals of the Sovereign Order. The recognition of the Holy See and the diplomatic relations maintained by our Order with over seventy sovereign States have not yet sufficed to make these groups respect the truth and the law. But this new relationship with the UN Assembly, around which all the states of the world are gathered, will mean that the fraudulent acts of our many imitators can be finally thwarted, with the possibility of prosecution.

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