UN NGO Conference Calls for End to Marriage and to National Sovereignty

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Officially accredited UN non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often speak from the far frontiers of social policy. The International Conference of NGOs, which convened for several days last week in Seoul, was no exception. The conference key-note speaker called upon NGOs to lead the establishment of a "new world order for the next millennium."

     Young Seek Choue, founder and chancellor of the Kyung Hee University System, said that "globalization has made the world a 'borderless society'" and that NGOs  "must break down the remnants of anachronistic imperialism, extreme nationalism, and exclusionism." Declaring the United Nations to be "one of our major partners," Young laid out a design for moving the world into what he called an "Oughtopian society."

     Among other things, Choue called for the elimination of national sovereignty, to be replaced by a system of regional governance by such bodies as the European Commission. Choue suggested the world would eventually evolve into a "global common society."

     The conference, sponsored by the official governing body of UN NGOs, was promoted as an opportunity for all NGOs to participate, although some participants felt the discussions purposely excluded conservative points of view. "Unless you support their agenda, they don't want your input," said Andy Biggs of the Utah-based United Families International. "They don't want dissent."

     Rachel Kyte of the World Conservation Union claimed that the Beijing Platform for Action legitimized the status of gays and lesbians as being legally entitled to certain rights. This is an ongoing theme at UN gatherings. In recent months UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mary Robinson, claimed that the right to homosexual marriage is contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A point disputed by most observers.

     Sheelagh Convay of Hancuk University (Seoul) said the family is not in decline but rather in transition. A summary of her workshop explained that "a retrogressive declares that  the family system is in jeopardy. On the other hand, a progressive admits the unconventional family as an alternative form of the more conventional family." Convay went on to say that families are the most violent and oppressive unit in society to women and children, and urged that "marriage be abolished."

     Other sessions covered topics ranging from education to "productive aging." One session, which focused on 'non-traditional' security issues, addressed economic, environmental, societal and food concerns as security issues in the same context as political and military security concerns.

     The conference is the first of four scheduled UN-sponsored conferences in the next six months on the role of NGOs in the new millennium. Others will be the UN Regional North American Hearing, Chicago, December 1999, the World Council on Civil Society, Montreal, December 1999, and the Millennium Forum, New York, May 2000.

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