Last updated on January 21st, 2021 at 11:16 am
The past several decades were marked by sometimes more, sometimes less successful attempts to create a new generation of human rights and freedoms, often at the expense of universal and generally accepted ones. Human rights – an amazing achievement of our civilization that was formulated after mass-scale suffering in the first half of the 20thcentury and because of the desire of the human family to make sure this never happens again, as well as with the maturing of the social awareness of individuals and nations that human beings possess inherent and inalienable human rights – have been incorporated in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereafter: Declaration).
Article 3 of the Declaration says: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article 16, paragraph 3 states: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”
This is how the Declaration, being a fundamental document introducing the notion of human rights to the human family, defined the right to life and family as the main characteristics of inherent human dignity, laying down the foundations on which a better and more humane society could be built.
Indeed, these values have been reaffirmed many times in subsequent decisions by the UN, as well as in national legislations of practically every country in the world.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
“Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6; UN General Assembly Resolution 2200А(XXI) of 16 December 1966;
“Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, ‘the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.’”
Convention on the Rights of the Child, preamble; UN General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989;
“States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.”
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 6; UN General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989;
“The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that:
1. The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society…
2. Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth.”
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 10; UN General Assembly Resolution 2200А (XXI) of 16 December 1966;
“Convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community.”
Convention on the Rights of the Child, preamble;
As these examples clearly show, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights onwards, the issue of the right to life, as an inherent right, and the issue of not only the rights of the family, and of children in particular, but also of the definition of family has been reaffirmed through numerous international declarations, covenants and consensuses.
And yet, new liberal winds are blowing today and for quite some time now, on behalf of the so-called new generation of human rights, they are trying to change the international order in the sphere of human rights and freedoms. This article is not the place to further elaborate on the abovesaid, as this issue requires a detailed analysis. I will focus on the importance of newly-voted Geneva Consensus as an incredible breath of fresh air in the cloud of anti-family international decisions to which we have been exposed in this century.
Namely, six UN members (USA, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda) proposed the adoption of the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family aimed at reaffirming the right to life, women’s rights, equality of the sexes, natural family, and rejection of abortion as a human right. In addition to the above cosponsors, the Consensus was also signed by the following states: Bahrain, Belarus, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eswatini, Gambia, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Nauru, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
Referencing numerous international declarations, the signatories inter aliareaffirmed that “human rights of women are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”[1]; that “every human being has the inherent right to life” [2]; that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state”[3]; that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance”[4]; that “women play a critical role in the family”, as does their “contribution to the welfare of the family and to the development of society”[5].
Based on this, the signatories have pledged to ensure “the full enjoyment of all human rights and equal opportunity for women at all levels of political, economic and public life”; to “improve and secure access … to sexual and reproductive health, which must always promote optimal health, the highest standard of health, without including abortion”; that “there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of States to finance or facilitate abortion, consistent with the long-standing international consensus that each nation has the sovereign right to implement programs and activities consistent with their laws and policies”; to “support the role of the family as foundational to society as a source of health, support, and care”; and to “engage across the UN system to realize these universal values, recognizing that individually we are strong, but together we are stronger.”
Those who are familiar with international law, and in particular with the United Nations, will recognize the immense importance of this Consensus Declaration as a long-expected turnaround in the flood of attempts to promote liberal rights of the new generation and abortion as an international right. There is not a single binding or non-binding international declaration that defines abortion as a right, hence it cannot be anything of the kind. Unable to declare abortion a human right, abortion advocates resort to another tactic: by repeating incessantly that there is a right to abortion, they want to make entire nations believe that it is so. Sadly, they are quite successful in this.
Concurrently, there are many efforts to redefine family, changing its definition from a union of a man and a woman, and their offspring, with a clear goal to include alternative unions in the definition, which would result in the recognition of the same rights to which the natural family is currently entitled.
Therefore, this Consensus Declaration is immensely important, especially since it comes from the United States which, we can safely say, is a precedent, given that we are accustomed to seeing only ultraliberal proposals come from the USA, and those are always aimed against the family. The question that yet remains to be answered is why Western European countries have not signed the Declaration, and most importantly for us: why Serbia has not done so? It is obvious that the current administration is blind to the positive developments in the United Nations. That’s a pity, because if Serbia signed this Declaration, it would show that it is thinking about its citizens, notably families which, as we can recall, are “entitled to protection by society and the state.”
[1]Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995.
[2]International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966.
[3]Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
[4]Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
[5]Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995.