Promoting Stable and Strong Families
Like other countries, we believe this anniversary year is an opportune time to focus our efforts and diplomacy on promoting stable and strong families. I had the honor of reading President Bush’s message commemorating the International Day of the Family at a May 13 event at the UN. “Families,” he affirmed, “are the cornerstone for societies around the world. They provide a foundation for our children to develop, learn, and become responsible adults.… By supporting and strengthening families, we promote the timeless values that preserve our communities and our cultures.”
The President’s words echo the importance of the family and the values and principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It is not lightly that the Declaration says, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” Fathers and mothers have an awesome task in raising healthy children, in providing loving and secure environments, and in transmitting the values and morals that are just as essential to their personal fulfillment as they are to the success of any society.
We in the United States may not need international declarations and documents to further our understanding of these values and morals or of the importance of the family and the fundamental freedoms that allow people to thrive. But we must not forget that there are families torn apart by war and trafficking and terrorism and disease, and many people who look outside their own nations for support to obtain political and civil freedoms they do not enjoy.
The United Nations offers us a way to work with other countries multilaterally to help the suffering and abused. But it is not easy work.
Achieving Better Outcomes on International Agreements
In UN meetings and conferences devoted to social issues, disagreements are to be expected. Yet we often face assertions that the U.S. is opposed to some of the most basic human rights simply because we have not ratified a certain UN treaty or convention. Because we take our international obligations seriously, we do not enter into treaties and conventions lightly. When we face aspects of human rights agreements that are inconsistent with our domestic law or transgress in some way on our principles of decentralized federalism, we try to negotiate them in a way that would allow us to sign on and implement them.
Unfortunately, that’s not always possible. But that certainly doesn’t stop us from being a leader in advancing human rights both at home and abroad. Our record on these issues in the United Nations, as one of the founding members, and outside the United Nations speaks for itself. No country has done more to bring freedom, opportunity, open markets and prosperity to the world than has the United States.
All that said, periodically the United States must stand firm on principle and seek collaboration with like-minded countries to address flawed agreements or conventions. I find that our principled and commonsense position on the importance of the family as the foundation of society helps us to build partnerships and achieve better outcomes on international agreements.
During the recent Commission on the Status of Women, for example, the United States took a proactive role to ensure the outcomes of our deliberations reflected the family principles upon which the UN was founded, and also values and rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a document on “the role of men and boys in achieving gender equity for women and girls,” we were able to insert language recognizing the importance of good and loving fathers. We were also able to avoid language that could have been interpreted to promote abortion or legalized prostitution, or to demean motherhood. This is just one example of leading on principle that good negotiations require.
Helping Other Countries Promote Family-Friendly Policies
No matter how difficult the challenge, promoting sound social policies can open doors to new partnerships. This lesson was reinforced on a recent trip I made to three Central American countries, where government, religious, and civic leaders told me they looked to the United States for leadership on social issues. A recurring theme was that, if the U.S. does not stand firmly for family and moral values, smaller countries will have nowhere else to look for support.
In Nicaragua, during one discussion of this Administration’s initiatives to promote stronger families, human rights and fundamental freedoms, Bishop Juan A. Mata, the General Secretary of the Nicaraguan Catholic Bishops' Conference, smiled broadly and told me, “I’m seeing a different face of the United States!”
Every official I met in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras has been gravely concerned about the disintegration of the family and the effects it is having on their countries. Large numbers of children (sometimes over half) are being born to single mothers living in poverty. High numbers of street children, child sexual exploitation, very low levels of educational achievement or completion, high levels of domestic violence, gangs, drug abuse, and a growing incidence of HIV/AIDS — effects of frail families are equally devastating everywhere.
Like many Americans, political, religious, and civic leaders in Latin America have come to realize that more government money is not the simple answer. They look at U.S. programs and policies to see if government and faith-based programs that are teaching core values, work and marriage skills, abstinence first, and responsibility really can help strengthen the family. Some wondered if there was any way the United States could assist them with trying those types of programs.
We should be cognizant at all times that we can lead by example as well as by diplomacy. Developing partnerships at the UN to promote stronger families could have lasting benefits.
Families do matter, and I will continue to make the case on their behalf in my work with the UN and other states. What I am hearing in my meetings in New York and my travels around the world is that U.S. leadership also matters. I am proud that this President has chosen to lead in the important arena of family policy.
© Copyright 2004 Catholic Exchange
Ambassador Ellen R. Sauerbrey is the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
