Poor Countries Defend Family from Attacks by Rich North

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | February 16, 2024

Image of the family

NEW YORK, February 16 (C-Fam) UN Member States celebrated the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family, but in a resolution adopted by the annual UN Commission on Social Development, countries of color had to battle the rich white counties of the north over family language.

The resolution reaffirmed previous agreements that declared the family as the “natural and fundamental group unit of society” a definition that is understood to refer to man-woman marriage as the foundation of society.

“As the first resolution on the International Year of the Family affirmed over thirty years ago—resolution 44/82—the goal of the observance was to create among governments, policymakers, and the public a greater awareness of the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society. Today there are powerful forces actively attempting to erase this awareness,” said a delegate from Nigeria.

“I want to emphasize that any reference to the family and family policy in this resolution should be understood in line with this goal,” she emphasized, to underscore that efforts to oppose the natural family based on man-woman marriage run counter to what longstanding UN agreements and binding international law says about the family.

Earlier in the week, representatives of the European Union and other Western countries had called for the recognition of “various forms of family” or to remove references to the family in the resolution. In response, the Holy See delegation warned that it was “deeply concerned that the family is increasingly downplayed or even denigrated in international fora” in an official statement.

At the conclusion of the commission, a delegate of the Holy See thanked the commission for giving “due recognition” to the anniversary in the resolution and called on countries to work together to promote family policies in future years.

The International Year of the Family, established in 1989 and observed for the first time in 1994, was one of the many pro-family initiatives set in motion by Saint John Paul II and the 1980 Vatican Synod on the Family. An entire generation of Catholic scholars and politicians was activated to promote pro-family policy by John Paul II’s teachings. The Holy See’s special interest in family policy was echoed by delegations from across the world, but most especially from Africa.

A delegate from Cameroon, speaking on behalf of 54 member states of the African Group said, “It is the view of the African Group that the centrality and indispensability of family in Africa as the fundamental unit in society should be strengthened and protected to play a vital role in the continent’s political, cultural, and social and economic development,” she said.

The same traditional countries who welcomed the acknowledgment of the International Year of the Family in the resolution complained about attempts to force recognition of homosexual and transgender issues during the negotiations.

“My delegation remains concerned about the attempt by a number of delegations to impose languages and references that do not have a real definition that we can work with at the national level,” said a delegate from Egypt. She also said it was “really regrettable” that Western delegations had been so focused on language about “intersecting forms of discrimination”— understood to refer to homosexual and transgender issues—rather than issues on which there was wide agreement.

The Egyptian delegate took a jab at the U.S. delegation. The U.S. delegate complained that the resolution included language about the “right to development” and said that UN resolutions are not binding and do not change international law. In response, the Egyptian delegate asked, “I wonder why we are sitting in this context to negotiate the language we adopt?”

Egypt’s objection to the language on intersectionality was echoed by Qatar, Malaysia, Libya, Iran, Djibouti, Nigeria, Mali, and Senegal.

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