{"id":97501,"date":"2021-09-30T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=97501"},"modified":"2021-09-30T13:44:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T17:44:36","slug":"secretary-generals-warning-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/secretary-generals-warning-to-the-world","title":{"rendered":"\u2018On the edge of an abyss\u2019: the Secretary-General\u2019s warning to the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Addressing the 76th<\/sup> Session of the UN General Assembly on September 21, 2021, the first day of its high-level General Debate, Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres spoke<\/a> passionately about the precarious state of the world. \u201cI\u2019m here to sound the alarm. The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss\u2014and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened. Or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These crises include, he continued, political upheaval, mistrust and misinformation, assault on human rights and science, poverty, COVID-19, and climate change. He spoke also of the need to bridge the six \u201cgreat divides\u201d\u2014the peace divide, the climate divide, the rich-versus-poor divide, the gender divide, the digital divide, and the generational divide. And pointing to a widespread loss of faith \u201cin the values that have animated the work of the United Nations for over 75 years,\u201d the Secretary-General declared, \u201clike never before, core values are in the crosshairs.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he unfortunately failed to mention was what the UN founders acknowledged as the foundational core value. All the rights named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a> are individual rights with one exception\u2014the rights belonging to a group unit, the only one named, which precedes the State and is entitled to protection by it: \u201cThe family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meaning is unmistakable, according to human rights lawyer and judge Manfred Nowak: the phrase \u201cnatural and fundamental group unit of society\u201d was intended \u201cto emphasize that despite various traditions and social structures, a pillar of all societies is the family as the smallest group unit,\u201d while the phrase \u201centitled to protection by society and the State\u201d was meant to \u201cshield the family as the cornerstone of the entire social order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Richard Wilkins added that \u201cas reflected in the precise and elegant terms of the Universal Declaration,\u201d the word \u201cnatural<\/em> attests that the survival of society depends on the positive outcomes derived from the natural union of a man and a woman,\u201d making it \u201cthe cradle\u2014not only of human rights\u2014but also of society and civilization itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder Ambassador Michael Novak could declare that \u201cThe roles of a father and a mother, and of children with respect to them, is the absolutely critical center of social force,\u201d and could add that \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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His warning calls to mind what those of us traveling years ago with Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey heard as we sat in the office of the president of a Central American republic. Drowning in corruption, crime, drugs, trafficking, and a host of other debilitating challenges, his country would soon be considered a failed state. Why such intractable problems? They all arose, he explained, from the failure of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our current worldwide crisis mentioned by the Secretary-General is the crisis of that Central American republic writ large\u2014a global failure of the family. Adding to the problem is the fact that the family is indeed \u201cin the crosshairs\u201d of enemies\u2014including, ironically, some in the United Nations itself! It is not Guterres\u2019 doing, of course; he came to his position long after powerful and lavishly funded NGOs operating in the United Nations had begun countering its original vision and values, as described by Gabriel Kuby:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a few decades, the UN became an institution that would use its power and resources to change the image of humanity as declared by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to replace universal moral values with relativistic postmodern \u2018values\u2019 as the foundation of culture\u2026. Today the UN and its powerful sub-organizations fight for dissolution of men\u2019s and women\u2019s sexual identity [and] elimination of marriage and family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Can it be mere coincidence that the greatest worldwide assault on the family is now taking place at the very time when we are experiencing what the Secretary-General calls \u201cthe greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes,\u201d placing us \u201con the edge of an abyss\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than two decades ago at the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the International Year of the Family, the General Assembly heard US representative Wade Horn proclaim, \u201cThe state\u2019s foremost obligation… is to respect, defend, and protect the family as an institution.\u201d To forget that obligation may well be as hazardous for us as forgetting was for the ancient Israelites who entered the Promised Land. \u201cBeware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments,\u201d Moses warned, for \u201cif you by any means forget\u2026, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudyard Kipling wrote, \u201cLord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget\u2014lest we forget!\u201d Those immortal words call us to remember that the family is, as Wade Horn also told the General Assembly, \u201cthe foundation of the social order, the bedrock of nations, and the bastion of civilization\u201d\u2014and we must act now to protect and strengthen it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can it be mere coincidence that the greatest worldwide assault on the family is now taking place at the very time when we are experiencing what the Secretary-General calls \u201cthe greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":97622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Can it be mere coincidence that the greatest worldwide assault on the family is now taking place at the very time when we are experiencing what the Secretary-General calls \u201cthe greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes\u201d?","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"510"},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,510,805],"tags":[10880,487],"class_list":["post-97501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-family","category-foreground","tag-secretary-general","tag-united-nations"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018On the edge of an abyss\u2019: the Secretary-General\u2019s warning to the world - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/secretary-generals-warning-to-the-world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018On the edge of an abyss\u2019: the Secretary-General\u2019s warning to the world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can it be mere coincidence that the greatest worldwide assault on the family is now taking place at the very time when we are experiencing what the Secretary-General calls \u201cthe greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes\u201d?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/secretary-generals-warning-to-the-world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-30T16:04:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-30T17:44:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/sec-gen-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"E. 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Douglas Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"E. Douglas Clark"},"description":"E. Douglas Clark is an attorney and Director of UN and International Policy at the International Organization for the Family. For two decades Doug has been on the forefront of defending the family at the United Nations as a lobbyist and strategist, leading teams and consulting with policymakers in New York and around the world. His writings include the World Family Declaration and articles in The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy and Ave Maria International Law Journal. After earning MBA and JD degrees from Brigham Young University, he practiced banking law and served as director of content of the original Law.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/dclarkifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97501"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98704,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97501\/revisions\/98704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}