{"id":219310,"date":"2024-02-06T02:58:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T07:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=219310"},"modified":"2024-02-06T06:18:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T11:18:23","slug":"iof-s-joint-statement-to-the-2024-commission-for-social-development-on-the-indispensable-role-of-family-in-fighting-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/iof-s-joint-statement-to-the-2024-commission-for-social-development-on-the-indispensable-role-of-family-in-fighting-poverty","title":{"rendered":"IOF\u2019s joint statement to the 2024 Commission for Social Development on the indispensable role of family in fighting poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IOF has submitted the following statement, joined by organizations around the world, to all United Nations ambassadors in New York for the 62nd<\/sup> session of the Commission for Social Development, 5 to 14 February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central, Indispensable, and Urgent:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Key Component in Social Policy for Poverty Eradication<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Excellency:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 2024 Commission for Social Development commences its work, we applaud its focus on the priority theme of \u201cFostering social development and social justice through social policies to accelerate progress on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieve the overarching goal of poverty eradication.<\/strong>\u201d With almost 700 million people around the world living in extreme poverty, the urgency of addressing this dire challenge has never been greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Commission wrestles with the necessarily multi-faceted policies and procedures designed to accelerate progress toward poverty eradication, we respectfully call attention to the one component which wise leaders, including the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have declared as foundational to the strength, stability, and development of society: the protection and promotion of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the rights enumerated in the UDHR, only one is held by a group unit\u2014the family. And not just any family, but the natural<\/em> family, the natural union of a man and a woman, constituting the very foundation of civilization: \u201cThe family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State<\/strong>\u201d (Article 16.3). Complementary to that unique right is another whose uniqueness is marked by the only occurrence in the UDHR of the word special<\/em>: \u201cMotherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance<\/strong>\u201d (Article 25.2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this was captured by Ambassador Michael Novak when he emphasized, \u201cThe roles of a father and a mother, and of children with respect to them, is the absolutely critical center of social force<\/strong>,\u201d for the family is \u201cthe seedbed of economic skills, money habits, attitudes toward work, and the arts of financial independence,\u201d and is \u201ca stronger agency of educational success than the school\u201d and \u201ca stronger teacher of the religious imagination than the church. Political and social planning in a wise social order begins with the axiom \u2018What strengthens the family strengthens society.\u2019<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strengthening the natural family empowers children to rise above poverty. As noted by the Brookings Institution, \u201cThe family structure in and of itself is an important factor in reducing poverty: children raised in single-parent families are nearly five times as likely to be poor as those in married-couple families<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UDHR does not specify the level of protection to which the family is entitled, but Article 10.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights leaves no doubt: \u201cThe widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This international covenantal obligation is not just one of many. Speaking to the General Assembly at the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the International Year of the Family, U.S. representative Wade Horn declared, \u201cThe state\u2019s foremost obligation is to respect, defend, and protect the family as an institution.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what happens when the family fails? Mexico\u2019s Ana Teresa Aranda warned, \u201cIt is no secret that the vulnerability suffered by our peoples\u2014insecurity, crime, abuse, abandonment of the elderly, orphaned children and violence\u2014causes enormous imbalances and obliges us to spend millions on institutional policies that in the end can do no more than manage those ills…. If we wish to address the causes, we must look at the family.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder the family has been recognized by leaders around the world as \u201ca vital partner\u201d<\/strong> in achieving international development goals (Secretary-General Kofi Annan), \u201cthe main instrument of societal transformation\u201d<\/strong> (Ambassador Iftekhar Chowdhury), and a \u201cdriving force\u201d for \u201csocial progress and development\u201d<\/strong> (Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To assist in the formulation of effective social policy for the eradication of poverty, we offer two books on the indispensable role of family capital in achieving the SDGs, available online for free at www.familycapital17sdgs.org<\/a>, and in published form in the Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld Library, where they have been repeatedly displayed as featured titles. We further urge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n