Countries Praise Russia’s Pro-Family Policies at Human Rights Forum

By | December 7, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8 (C-Fam) During the recent session of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review, no fewer than sixteen countries urged the Russian Federation to continue its promotion of the family. The Universal Periodic Review is where governments have their human rights records reviewed by other UN member states, rather than by leftwing “experts.”

The recommendation to continue efforts to preserve and protect traditional family values, including at the international level or similar wording was submitted by a group of mostly African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American delegations, including Tunisia, Eritrea, Lebanon, Mali, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Brunei Darussalam.

Iraq and Cameroon urged the Russian Federation to support the institution of the family through economic and social policies.  Venezuela’s recommendation was to support victims of domestic violence and “promote and protect traditional family values in all spaces.”  Algeria, Iran, and the Gambia called on the Russian Federation to promote and support the family “as the natural and fundamental group unit of society,” quoting the definition of the family found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

While pro-family recommendations are not uncommon in the Universal Periodic Review, the number and evident coordination of recommendations in support of traditional family values during Russia’s review was notable.

Meanwhile, eighteen mostly-Western countries made recommendations that the Russian Federation adopt laws specifically prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and repeal its laws restricting LGBT propaganda, legal recognition of sex changes, and “gender-affirming” interventions.

Recommendations on issues of homosexuality and gender ideology continue to come from a relatively small but vocal group of countries.  In the fourth cycle of the review process, which began in November of 2022, over eighty percent of recommendations on these topics came from only twenty-two countries, with Iceland alone making up almost sixteen percent of them—more than double that of any other country.  Iceland also far exceeds the rest of the world in pressuring countries to liberalize their abortion laws.

Unlike the entitlement of traditional family unit to support from society and the state, which is referenced in the founding documents of the UN, no human rights treaty or resolution adopted by international consensus includes homosexual issues, which remain highly controversial.

Nevertheless, the UN’s human rights experts and treaty monitoring committees frequently exceed their mandates by pressuring countries to accept these things as in keeping with international human rights standards.

The Russian Federation recently faced additional pushback from the UN’s human rights office after its Supreme Court ruled that the international LGBT movement is “extremist” and accusing it of “inciting social and religious discord.”  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the decision, additionally calling on the Russian Federation to repeal laws “prohibiting gender-affirming medical and administrative procedures, and banning so-called ‘LGBT propaganda.’”

Recommendations made during the Universal Periodic Review are not binding, and the country being reviewed will respond to the individual recommendations by marking them as “noted” or “supported” in the coming months.  In Russia’s last review, which was held in 2018, it supported recommendations to investigate instances of violence against people identified as LGBT, while withholding support for recommendations to repeal its restrictions on propaganda or include sexual orientation and gender identity as specific legal grounds for non-discrimination.

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