Fighting for Women and Children — IOF Weekly

UDHR Principles for CSW62

Guiding Stars to Protect Women, Children and Family

The celebration later this year of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reminder that several of its key provisions can serve as guiding stars for the work of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, beginning with the preambular principle of “the inherent dignity and… equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family,” including “the equal rights of men and women.” We commend the delegates for their tireless work in seeking to better the lives of women by eliminating all harm, harassment, and violence, including all trafficking, exploitation, and child and forced marriage; by ensuring equal pay and benefits for equal work, equal access to asset ownership and control, and equal access to education; and by protecting vulnerable women migrants.

As these goals are pursued, we urge that another guiding star from the UDHR not be forgotten: “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance” (art. 25(2)). To that end, we ask delegates to resist proposals whose impact would be to lure mothers away from their children under the guise of “full participation” in the workforce, as we recall the words of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: “Mothers play a critical role in the family… The mother-child relationship is vital for the healthy development of children…. We face multiple challenges in our changing world, but one factor remains constant: the timeless importance of mothers and their invaluable contribution to raising the next generation.” Accordingly, we urge adoption of language proposed by two delegations recognizing that “women’s contribution to the home, including unpaid care and domestic work, which is still not adequately recognized, generates human and social capital that is essential for social and economic development.”

We further urge that the pursuit of “gender equality” not ignore the reality presumed in the UDHR provision stating that “Men and women… have the right to marry and to found a family” (art. 16(1)). The equal rights of men and women do not erase their inherent differences in what Pope Francis has referred to as “the complementarity of man and woman” which “is at the root of marriage and family.” But, he warns, “In our day, marriage and the family are in crisis” due to a “revolution in manners and morals [that] has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact… has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Evidence is mounting that the decline of the marriage culture is associated with increased poverty and a host of other social ills, disproportionately affecting women, children, and the elderly.” We urge delegates not to be deceived by the “flag of freedom” flown to advance an agenda that ultimately and disproportionately harms women, including the very people who the UDHR recognizes as having special rights: mothers and children.

Finally, we urge delegates to give due weight to the UDHR’s singular provision recognizing the only group that has rights: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State” (art. 16(3)). We urge the adoption of the African Group’s proposal stating: “Reiterate that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community, particularly in rural areas.” We further urge adoption of the language proposed by several delegations stating: “Recognize the family as a contributor to development, including in the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals for women and girls.”

Thank you for your consideration of these matters and for your important work to protect women, children, and the family—the indispensable natural and fundamental group unit of society.

Sincerely,

International Organization for the Family

Alliance Defending Freedom

Center for Family and Human Rights

United Families International

American Family Association of New York

Latin American Alliance for the Family

Novae Terrae Foundation, Italy

FamilyPolicy.RU Advocacy Group, Russia

Family Policy Institute, South Africa

CitizenGo, Spain

Family First Foundation

Universal Peace Federation

Two more students are injured and the gunman dead in yet another school shootingthis week, this time in Maryland. Only a few weeks after the deadly Parkland, Florida, shooting, America is still reeling. In a piece for NPR, Claudio Sanchez covers the history of how Americans have tried to deal with school shootings. What has helped? Nothing, Sanchez said: “it’s clear to me that students are just as vulnerable today as they were 20-25 years ago. . . . In large part, because students have access to high-powered weapons, a problem that schools have no say in or control over.” A common denominator which is persistently left out of the discussion, however, is the role that permissive, absent and single parenthood plays in aggression in teens.

Read more at The Natural Family, an international journal of research and policy.