Russia Holds Firm on Family at Summit of the Future/Outcome Uncertain

By | September 19, 2024

NEW YORK, September 20 (C-Fam) Diplomats from Russia said they would “draw the line” at the family in a debate about the impending UN Summit of the Future.

In a surprising development, delegates from Russia insists on “the family” as important to social and economic development in the agreements expected to be adopted at the Summit of the Future next week.

While the Russian Federation is known to have staked out pro-family positions in the past, especially at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, it is rare and perhaps unprecedented to see such insistence in a high-level negotiation at the UN General Assembly.

Western countries, for their part, don’t want any references to “the family” in the singular. They argue that the notion of the family in the singular is a Western construct that excludes other types of families, including LGBT families. They insist that if there is any reference to families at all in UN policy it should be in the plural “families.”

The Russian delegate responded to these Western arguments during an open meeting last week. She said the Russian delegation was not “comfortable with how gender was being opposed to family issues.” She argued that the family in the singular was an “umbrella term” and that countries could define the family as they preferred in national laws.

The Russian delegate challenged colleagues from other countries to be flexible. She even said that the Russian Federation could have taken an even harder line and used language from existing treaties that refer to the family as the “natural and fundamental group unit of society” and expressly defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Several delegations from Africa and Asia, including China, supported the Russian position.

It is a surprising turn of events. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union spread the notion that the family was a capitalist social construct that hindered the ability of the government to reach common social goals and perpetuated traditional norms. Russia now insists the family is the bedrock of society. Conversely, Western delegations that once promoted the family as the seat of the right to privacy and a bulwark against government overreach now see the family as an obstacle to government efficiency and women’s rights.

The time crunch and diplomatic pressures may work to Russia’s advantage.

Three final agreements are scheduled to be adopted as a package at the Summit in the coming days. With world leaders arriving at the UN, there is intense pressure on diplomats to abandon their red lines and to be flexible. This could play to Russia’s advantage and result in a high-level agreement that refers to the importance of the family for development policy for the first time.

The Russian Federation is only one of several delegations holding up the final agreements for the Summit of the Future over a range of issues.

One other major disputed issue is how to refer to the perceived injustices resulting from colonialism. Western countries, the United Kingdom and European Union reject language that would commit them to find ways of “remedying past tragedies” due to colonialism. Delegations from Latin America, Africa and Asia are looking for some kind of restitution.

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