Last updated on July 11th, 2024 at 07:09 am
IOF has submitted the following statement, joined by organizations around the world, to all UN ambassadors in New York for the 12th session of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, 8 to 17 July 2024.
Dear Excellency:
We thank you for your important work at the 2024 session of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and we applaud its focus on “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: The effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions.”
With such crises tragically adding to the already more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty, and with the estimate from last year’s HLPF that a mere 12% of the Sustainable Development Goals targets are on track, we recognize the urgency of making accelerated progress. We also recognize that the complex nature of those crises—including pandemic, war, geopolitical tensions, and climate disruption—necessarily demands multi-faceted policies and nuanced approaches.
But even as success in a multi-front war requires a governing strategy rather than mere reliance on winning isolated battles, we believe that the ultimate achievement of the SDGs must be based on the over-arching truth recognized by Michael Novak, US Ambassador to the Commission on Human Rights: “The roles of a father and a mother, and of children with respect to them, is the absolutely critical center of social force,” and “Political and social planning in a wise social order begins with the axiom ‘What strengthens the family strengthens society.’”
Moldovan President Igor Dodon similarly declared, “The family is the most important social institution.” Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar stated, “The family is the driving force behind social progress and development.” Ambassador Iftekhar Chowdhury of Bangladesh called the family “the main instrument of societal transformation.” And the twenty-five nations of the Group of Friends of the Family affirmed,
We recognize the vital role of the family in attaining the internationally agreed development goals and confirm our commitment to enhance the contribution of the families in the efforts to achieve sustainable development goals by promoting family-oriented policies and prioritizing the needs and priorities of the family at the national and international levels.
By far, however, the most authoritative announcement on the nature of the family and its indispensable role was made by the entire United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State” (Article 16.3).
While the UDHR does not specify the level of protection to which the family is entitled, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights leaves no doubt: “The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society” (Article 10.1). The weight of that covenantal obligation was emphasized by US representative Wade Horn speaking to the General Assembly at the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family: “The state’s foremost obligation is to respect, defend, and protect the family as an institution.”
We are convinced that the natural family is indeed the bedrock of society, the strength of our nations, and the hope of humanity, and constitutes the indispensable foundation for sustainable development. To facilitate integration of the central role of family into the plans of this year’s HLPF, we call your attention to two books on family capital, both available in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library and also online at www.familycapital17sdgs.org. We further offer the following suggestions.
- Systematic mainstreaming of the family in plans and programs to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development.
- Affirmation of the unique and irreplaceable contributions of mothers and fathers to the lives of their children, with special emphasis on responsible and caring fatherhood.
- Focus on strengthening healthy marriages and encouraging marital stability and fidelity.
- Encouraging and empowering functional, nurturing families as the surest safeguard of motherhood and childhood.
- Special assistance for displaced families, single mothers with children, and children without parents.
Thank you again for your selfless work in seeking to alleviate the suffering of humanity. We pray for your success.
Respectfully,
- International Organization for the Family
- United Families International
- Center for Family and Human Rights
- Universal Peace Federation
- American Family Advocates
- CitizenGO, Spain
- Latin American Alliance for the Family
- Institute for Family Policy
- Family First, New Zealand
- HazteOir, Spain
- REAL Women of Canada
- FamilyPolicy.RU Advocacy Group, Russia
- Native American Fatherhood & Families Association
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