by Sharon Slater. June 6, 2014.
We urgently need your help in persuading the UN to include the family in the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) that will guide international development efforts for the next 15 years.
We and the UN Family Rights Caucus, which Family Watch chairs, have been urging the UN working group that is developing the draft goals, to recognize the essential role of the family in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals.
You can help by signing the international petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the head of the UN General Assembly, the chairs of the UN Open Working Group on the new goals, the ambassadors of all 192 UN member countries, and other key UN officials. You can sign the petition at: www.citizengo.org/en/7665-un-include-family-campaign.
The UN is ignoring its obligation to protect the family as called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognizes the family as “the fundamental unit of society” entitled to protection of society and State. Other UN documents also call upon the UN to assess the impact of policies on the family in order to protect it.
Yet in the important deliberations going on right now, the UN is ignoring the family. We cannot let them ignore the essential and irreplaceable role of the family in achieving these goals, or the family will be further undermined.
This is not acceptable!
A few countries such as Belarus, Qatar and the delegation of the Holy See have called upon the UN to establish a standalone goal to protect the family as part of these new UN goals, but again, they have been completely ignored.
We cannot let this happen!
We are calling upon all responsible citizens from around the world to join the “Include the Family!” campaign by signing this petition, which calls on the UN to fulfill their international obligation to protect the family by including the family in the SDGs.
Since the family is key to peace, prosperity and development, not only should protecting the family be a standalone goal, but the family should also be mainstreamed into each of the other UN goals as well.
We urgently need your help today! These goals are close to being completed, and we need to demonstrate worldwide support for including the family.
Let’s show the UN that the majority of people from all countries in the world want the family protected by making this the largest campaign the UN has ever seen.
Help them feel the power that comes when the families of the world arise and demand that policies that undermine this vital institution never advance.
In addition to signing the petition yourself, you can help support this effort even more by forwarding this petition on to everyone you know.
Forward it to mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coworkers, religious and community leaders, officers of government, everyone you know, and ask them to sign it and forward it on as well.
Thank you for your help!
Together, let’s show the UN that families are irreplaceable and can no longer be ignored. Let’s tell the UN to “Include the Family!”
Source: Family Watch International