Dear Friend of the Family,

In a historic move last week, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva voted to adopt a landmark resolution calling for the protection of the family!  (The draft of the resolution is available but note that there were some changes negotiated to this language and the adopted version is not available yet. The quotes that are listed below are all accepted language in the final resolution.) 

This resolution strongly reaffirms the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society, and calls on governments to both implement family-sensitive policies and to take steps to address threats to the family.

This is by far the strongest and most comprehensive pro-family UN document ever, and pro-family UN delegations worked hard to achieve this in the face of great opposition.

But the governments who effected this great victory need our strong support right now.  They are coming under attack by various developed countries, and they need to hear from people all around the world to help them stay strong. 

We also need to let the nations that voted against or abstained from the resolution vote know that such opposition or inaction is completely unacceptable and violates their international obligations in multiple binding UN documents to protect the family (READ OUR BRIEF: Binding Obligation of States to Protect the Family).

Please help support these delegations who achieved this great victory by signing letters thanking the nations that voted for it, or urging those that did not to change their position when the resolution is relied upon in the future. This is something everyone can do, and a worldwide show of support will help ensure future victories for the family.

Please also take the time to read some of the excellent excerpts below from this unprecedented eight-page resolution outlining in detail the international obligations UN Member States to protect the family obligations that in many countries have largely been ignored.

We are sure you will agree that this document is one of the best developments to ever come out of the UN and is a bright light in the midst of many other negative developments.

We couldn’t be more grateful to the UN delegates and governments that put their necks on the line to make this happen.  

Annie Franklin, FWI’s Director of International Affairs, who serves as the spokesperson for the UN Family Rights Caucus, reported, “This is a major victory for the pro-family movement and for families worldwide.  Along with reaffirming parental rights and calling for other important pro-family actions, it also recognizes the important role of the family in fighting poverty, promoting sustainable development, and nurturing children.”

Some of the key provisions of the family resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council include:

• “. . . the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children” and that “the family plays a crucial role in the preservation of cultural identity, traditions, morals, heritage and value system of the society.”
• “…calls upon States to render appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities … bearing in mind that a child should grow up in a safe and supportive family environment…”
• “. . . maternity, motherhood, parenting and the role of women in procreation must not be a basis for discrimination . . . .”
• “Recognizes the positive impact that policies and measures to protect the family can have on protecting and promoting the human rights of its members and can contribute, inter alia, to decreasing dropout rates from educational institutions, achieving equality between women and men and girls and boys, empowering women and girls, and enhancing the protection against violence, abuses, sexual exploitation . . . “

Urges States to:

• create “family friendly-policies to support the family and assess such policies and programmes for their impact on family well-being . . .”
• “reinforce the role of grandparents in raising grand children . . . ”
• address the “causes and mitigating the consequences of family disintegration . . . “
• grant “assistance to families in difficult life situations . . . “
• Recognizes the family “. . . as a contributor to sustainable development” and "encourages States to give due consideration to the role and status of the family in the context of the ongoing negotiations of the post-2015 development agenda, and invites States to consider mainstreaming the promotion of family-oriented policies as a cross cutting issue in the proposed goals and targets of the post-2015 agenda.”
• Reminds states of their “obligations under relevant provisions of international human rights law to provide protection and support to the family..."

Click here to read the final draft of the resolution, but note that there were some last-minute changes to this version of the resolution, and the final version will not be available for several weeks. The quotes listed above are all agreed language in the final resolution.  A list of the countries voting for and against the resolution is below. 

This is a tremendous victory for the family and represents the first major fruits of the work of a new, growing and vigorous coalition of governments at the UN which are deeply concerned about the worldwide disintegration of the family.

It is essential that all of us around the world, especially those of us living in the developed countries that push anti-family policies, show our support for the courageous and vital work of these pro-family countries.

Please take just a few minutes and quickly sign the petition. Also, please forward this on to everyone you know who might also sign this petition and spread this great news!

For updates on the resolution and more information click here.

Sincerely,
Sharon Slater

P.S. Here is the voting record of the Human Right Council on the family resolution:

Voted for:

• Algeria
• Bangladesh
• Bolivia
• Botswana
• China
• Congo
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Cuba
• EL Salvador
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Ghana
• India
• Indonesia
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Maldives
• Morocco
• Namibia
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Paraguay
• Qatar
• Russian Federation
• Saudi Arabia
• Sierra Leone
• United Arab Emirate
• Venezuela
• Viet Nam 

Voted Against:

• Albania
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Japan
• Latvia
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Korea
• South Africa
• UK
• USA

 Abstained:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Mexico
• Macedonia