International support for the Convention on the Rights of the Family – a press briefing in the Parliament

Ordo Iuris

The contemporary world increasingly often undermines the identity and autonomy of family. The Convention on the Rights of the Family prepared by the Ordo Iuris Institute is to address this issue. Representatives of social and expert organisations from several countries worked in Warsaw to develop the final draft of the Convention and they adopted an international Declaration of support for Convention on the Rights of the Family. The Declaration was presented during a press briefing in the Polish Parliament.

                                                                                READ THE DECLARATION

The Convention on the Rights of the Family is an alternative to the Istanbul Convention, whose ideological assumptions are detrimental to the interests of family. Prepared by experts from the Ordo Iuris Institute at the initiative of MEP Marek Jurek, the document is intended to promote the highest standards of protecting family life and marriage understood as a union between a man and a woman. It also aims to defend the right of parents to raise their children according to their own beliefs. The Convention grants family the legal capacity and makes the national family policy crucial in the making and application of the law. The draft also includes specific provisions regarding the prevention of violence by recognising support for family – in line with the research of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health or OSCE – as the most appropriate means of protection against violence. Furthermore, the document provides international clarification of the most vital terms related to the functioning of the family, such as ‘marriage’ and ‘child's welfare.’

The first Working Conference on the Convention on the Rights of the Family has been held over the past two days in Warsaw under the guidance of experts from Ordo Iuris. Representatives of the social and expert organisations from several countries and representatives of the Catholic Church from Latvia and Poland, the Baptist Union of Poland, the Norwegian Pentecostal community Kristen Koalisjon Norge and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church also participated in the session. They presented the international Declaration of support for the Convention on the Rights of the Family during the press briefing that closed the meeting. In the document, they emphasise the value of family as the basic social unit. They also mention the perils of undermining the natural concept of family. They also call the authorities to commit to a policy that protects family and to terminate any international treaties that threaten its welfare.

“The Convention on the Rights of the Family is not only a long-awaited instrument empowering families, protecting marriage and reinforcing the guarantee of the inherent and non-transferrable nature of human dignity; it is primarily an initiative to establish the highest standard for the protection of family life. The Convention is also a strong response to the excessive expansion of the public administration interfering in the life of families" – attorney Jerzy Kwaśniewski, the President of Ordo Iuris, summed up the works on the Convention and the adopted Declaration.

Declaration signed:

Tomislav Cunovic (Croatia - Vice President Vigilare Foundation)

Gyõzõ Czettele (Hungary - European Family Science Society)

Dragan Dagić (Bosna and Herzegovina - Foundation For Life)

Jan Gregor (Czech Republic - Aliance pro rodinu)

Marek Jurek (Poland - Prawica Rzeczypospolitej)

Joanna Krupska (Poland - Związek Dużych Rodzin 3Plus)

Jerzy Kwaśniewski (Poland - Instytut na rzecz Kultury Prawnej Ordo Iuris)

Marian Piłka (Poland - Prawica Rzeczypospolitej)

Kazimierz Przeszowski (Poland - Centrum Życia i Rodziny)

Grégor Puppinck (France - European Centre for Law and Justice)

Andrej Ralbovsky (Slovakia - Nadácia Slovakia Christiana)

Abp Zbigniew Stankiewicz (Latvia - katolicki Metropolita Ryski)

Aleksander Stralcou-Karwacki (Belarus - Pro Baltia Christiana et Latina Foedus)

Jan–Aage Torp (Norway - Kristen Koalisjon Norge)

Pavel Vilcek (Slovakia - Slovensky Dohour za Rodinu)

Varro Vooglaid (Estonia - Foundation for the Protection of Family and Tradition)

Pastor Mateusz Wichary Ph.D. (Poland - Leader of the Baptist Church in Poland)

Tymoteusz Zych Ph.D (Poland - Instytut na rzecz Kultury Prawnej Ordo Iuris)