UN: 437,000 Signatures Support Life and Marriage

The pro-life delegation was received by several heads of UN missions and their staffs.

NEW YORK, N.Y. (C-FAM) - In New York yesterday, an international pro-life and pro-family coalition delivered a petition at United Nations (UN) headquarters signed by 437,000 members of civil society in 168 countries urging UN member states to return to the original understanding of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) as a document which protects unborn life and the traditional family. The petition was launched on September 29th by C-FAM [C-FAM is the publisher of the Friday Fax].

At a press conference in the official UN press briefing room, the pro-life and pro-family delegation addressed a room filled with reporters, delegates, and non-governmental representatives on how the petition details the proper understanding of four articles of the UDHR which have been increasingly misinterpreted by various UN committees and officials trying to impose abortion, homosexual marriage and other "rights" on sovereign states. A statement was read from Carlo Cassini, member of the European parliament and originator of the petition in Europe. The UN television station interrupted its normal broadcasting to air the press conference throughout UN headquarters.

The petition highlighted several articles of the Universal Declaration. Article 3 of the UDHR asserts that everyone has the right to life. The delegation emphasized that when the declaration was negotiated, pro-life nations such as Lebanon and Chile defeated attempts to remove consideration of the unborn, ensuring that national pro-life laws were protected by the UDHR to this day. Article 16 asserts that the family is the fundamental group unit of society and entitled to protection by society and the state. Similarly, Article 25 guarantees special care and assistance for motherhood and childhood.

Article 26 affirms that parents have the prior right to determine the education of their children, a right that has been encroached upon by some UN agencies and NGOs through such means as providing minors "sexual and reproductive health services" without the knowledge or consent of parents. Article 16 protects traditional family by asserting that men and women of full age, without limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family.

This article is coming under fire from the European Union during the UN's commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Declaration this week. The French plan to deliver a non-negotiated "political" declaration that aims at reinterpreting all UN human rights documents to include sweeping new rights on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."

The pro-life delegation was received by several heads of UN missions and their staffs for private discussions on ways to restore a proper understanding of the UDHR at the UN. These included the missions of Belize, Czech Republic, Fiji, the Holy See, Malta, Philippines, Poland, Uganda and the United States.

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Members of the pro-life delegation included Martha de Casco, member of the Honduran Congress, Pawel Wosicki, president of the Polish Federation of Pro-life Movements which includes 140 organizations for life and family, Leszek Bosek, president of Academia Iuris Foundation in Poland, Noelia Garcia Ayuyela, communications director for the Institute for Family Policy in Madrid, Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, Beverly Rice, president of United Families International, and Austin Ruse, president of C-FAM.

Austin Ruse announced at the press conference that support for the petition has been so rapid and intense that the coalition intends to keep the petition open with a view to presenting one million signatures to the General Assembly next Fall.

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'This author writes for C-FAM. This article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (www.c-fam.org). This article appears with permission."