U.N. Passes Pro-Family Resolution

by Terry Phillips, Citizenlink correspondent

SUMMARY: Affirmation of traditional marriage a change in the direction of the international organization.

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution supporting traditional marriage to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

The resolution recognizes the importance of a mother and a father in the life of a child and affirms the value of more than a hundred pro-family conferences held this year. And although it has no force of law and governments can disregard the details as well as the spirit of the measure, family advocated hailed its passage.

"It calls for support of the nuclear family as the fundamental and natural group unit of society and the importance of trying to preserve and reclaim the family as much as we can," said Dr. David Popenoe of the Marriage Project.

Thomas Jacobson, Focus on the Family's representative to the United Nations, said the resolution "marks a change in the direction of policy at the United Nations re-embracing the family as the fundamental unit of society."

"It contained the words 'husband and wife,' " he noted, "and did not contain phrases which are code words at the U.N. to try to incorporate the same-sex unions into the term family."

Not everyone was a fan of the pro-family language, though. Canada, New Zealand, Australia and European Union nations disassociated themselves from the decision.