Articles

Overview

The natural family—led by a father and mother united in marriage—has always been honored as the ideal basic unit of society, the foundation of peace, prosperity, and progress. When the United Nations produced its Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the family was acknowledged as society's natural and fundamental unit, with the right of protection.

Ironically, the family is now gravely threatened by forces working through the United Nations. Some human rights initiatives, however well-intended, unfortunately ignore or diminish the rights of the family, thereby attacking the foundation of society.

Speaking to the General Assembly at the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family, the representative from Benin told that in preparation for the event, “it was urgent that we think about and define effective strategies to save the family.”

It is urgent that every nation do the same. At the 2007 World Congress of Families in Warsaw, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo (President of the Pontifical Council on the Family) declared: “We are living in a decisive and very important moment. If we have bad laws concerning the institutions that are fundamental for the life of society, then we will all suffer and, after us, the generations to come.” We cannot let this happen, he said: “The situation that has been created in our world with regard to marriage and the family calls for all our efforts.”

We cannot allow UN agencies to encroach upon national sovereignty and harm our most precious asset, the natural family. We cannot allow the campaigns for rights—so called human rights, fundamental rights, gender rights, sexual rights, reproductive rights—to destroy the rights of the natural family and the values that uphold it. We must not only defend the family, but also proactively put in place policies to protect and promote it. We must act now to save the family.