{"id":169649,"date":"2022-11-07T15:33:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T20:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=169649"},"modified":"2023-03-02T03:41:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T08:41:38","slug":"joined-by-organizations-worldwide-iof-urges-un-ambassadors-to-renew-hope-by-protecting-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/joined-by-organizations-worldwide-iof-urges-un-ambassadors-to-renew-hope-by-protecting-the-family","title":{"rendered":"Joined by organizations worldwide, IOF urges UN ambassadors to renew hope by protecting the family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last updated on March 2nd, 2023 at 03:41 am<\/p>\n

Responding to the Secretary-General\u2019s call on UN Day 2022, the IOF has issued the following statement, which has been joined by organizations worldwide and provided to all UN ambassadors and their missions in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us renew our hope\u201d: Answering the Secretary-General\u2019s call on<\/strong> United Nations Day 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, more than ever, we need to bring to life the values and principles of the UN Charter in every corner of the world.\u201d[1]<\/a> So proclaimed Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres on United Nations Day, October 24, 2022, marking the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of that Charter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those values and principles as mentioned in the Charter include \u201cpromoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all\u201d (Article 1), an objective of such importance that the United Nations lost no time in organizing its Human Rights Commission tasked with drafting \u201ca fundamental declaration on human rights, acceptable to all the United Nations.\u201d[2]<\/a> On the eve of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt, who had directed its creation, expressed her hope for the destiny of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stand at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind\u2026 This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man by the French people in 1789 [and] the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the United States.[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

All of the rights recognized in this modern-day Magna Carta are rights of individuals, with one notable exception. Article 16(3) declares: \u201cThe family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the family is society\u2019s \u201cnatural\u201d group unit was explained by Michael J. Novak, who served as US ambassador to the Commission on Human Rights: \u201cThe roles of a father and a mother, and of children with respect to them, is the absolutely critical center of social force.\u201d<\/em>[4]<\/a> Or, as stated by Pope Francis, \u201cThe complementarity of man and woman… is a root of marriage and family.\u201d<\/em>[5]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novak also explained how the family is society\u2019s \u201cfundamental\u201d group unit, and his words loom ever more urgent as our world faces a proliferation of natural and man-made disasters. \u201cThroughout history, nations have been able to survive a multiplicity of disasters\u2014invasions, famines, earthquakes, epidemics, depressions\u2014but they have never been able to survive the disintegration of the family.\u201d<\/em>[6]<\/a> <\/em>Or, as stated by President Russell M. Nelson, \u201cIf there is any hope for the future of nations, that hope resides in the family.\u201d<\/em>[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope was the impetus at the creation of the UN, noted the Secretary-General on this year\u2019s United Nations Day, and hope must be our impetus today. \u201cThe United Nations is the product of hope. The hope\u2014and resolve\u2014following the Second World War to move beyond global conflict to global cooperation…. As we mark UN Day, let us renew our hope and conviction in what humanity can achieve when we work as one, in global solidarity.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, the undersigned organizations, express our ardent hope that all nations will work in global solidarity to provide the protection to which the family is entitled, and will do so in accordance with the commitment undertaken in Article 10.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: \u201cThe widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us indeed renew our hope as we protect and promote what is truly our best hope for the future of nations\u2014the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n