World Congress of Families Counters Feminist Disinformation on UN Resolution Supporting 'Traditional Values'

World Congress of Families Counters Feminist Disinformation on UN Resolution
Supporting 'Traditional Values'

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- World Congress of Families
Managing Director Larry Jacobs decried what he called "feminist
disinformation" on a resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council
affirming "traditional values." The resolution also calls for a UN workshop
in 2010 to examine the way traditional values are the foundation for human
rights: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/sdpage_e.aspx?b=10&se=100&t=4.

Sponsored by the Russian Federation, the resolution was passed by a vote of 26
to 15, with 6 abstentions. Just like the Amsterdam Declaration adopted by
World Congress of Families V (http://www.worldcongress.org/WCF5/wcf5.dec.htm)
, the resolution reaffirms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Feminists have since gone ballistic, citing the U.N. Special Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women, who identifies "traditional practices" to include
"female genital mutilation, honor killings, spousal abuse, dowry-related
violence and customary laws that deny women equality."

Jacobs responded: "Only radical feminists would consider honor killings and
female genital mutilation to be 'traditional values.' These odious practices
of violence are confined to a few societies worldwide, and should continue to
be eradicated."

Jacobs continued: "When the World Congress of Families, and the international
pro-family movement, speaks of traditional values, we mean those that support
the natural family - including parental rights, respect for the rights of the
unborn and infirm, freedom to practice religious faith, and a recognition of
the different but co-equal roles of men and women in the family."

Even the term "natural family" derives from the 1948 United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which says the family is "the natural and
fundamental group unit of society, and is entitled to protection by society
and the state."

Jacobs observes: "In the past, instead of helping women, children and victims
of violence by enforcing the existing human rights provisions in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, radical feminists and their allies have used
various United Nations agencies to try to force agenda-driven sex education,
condom-distribution, abortion, and homosexuality on traditional societies.
The UN Human Rights Council Resolution on 'Traditional Values' represents a
threat to the radical feminist, homosexual and pro-abortion goals, not an
endorsement of spousal abuse."

Jacobs concluded: "The Russian Federation is to be congratulated for
sponsoring this affirmation of the rights of families in the face of various
onslaughts by international bodies. Russia may be prompted in part by its own
experience and understandable concern about the nation's very low birth rate
and decline in traditional family formation. Whatever the reason, we are
grateful for Russia's move in support of traditional values and the natural
family."

World Congress of Families has held five international Congresses, from 1997
to 2009. The last was World Congress of Families V in Amsterdam, August 10-12
of this year (www.worldcongress.nl).

For more information on the World Congress of Families, visit
www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Managing Director Larry
Jacobs, contact Communications Director Don Feder at 508-405-1337 or
dfeder@rcn.com.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family
organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60
countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social
unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan
Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society
in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World
Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and
Warsaw, Poland (2007). The fifth World Congress of Families was held in
Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 10-12, 2009 (www.worldcongress.nl and
www.worldcongress.org).

SOURCE World Congress of Families

Communications Director Don Feder, +1-508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; or The
Howard Center For Family, Religion & Society, +1-815-964-5819