Tuesday, 14 December 2004

Baldock promotes Doha Declaration on the Family

United Future MP, Larry Baldock, today unsuccessfully sought leave of the House to move a motion supporting the Doha Declaration on the Family which was approved by consensus at the UN General Assembly on 6 December 2004.

“This Declaration is the most up-to-date document outlining the intentions of the United Nations to uphold the family and preserve and defend the institution of marriage in member states.

“I find it appalling that New Zealand’s delegate has disassociated from the resolution on some trivial basis.

“What clearly seems to be the problem is that this UN Declaration does not support the diversity of same-sex families as hoped for by New Zealand and other liberal European nations.

“What they failed to recognise is the majority of the nations of the world want to defend marriage as being between man and a woman, and to promote healthy families based on mothers and fathers.

“It is hard to accept Mr McKay’s criticism that “the document contains no reference to the rights of women and children” when Article 2 goes on to say “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance”.

“Perhaps it was Article 2 of the Document “we recognise the inherent dignity of the human person and note the child by reason of its physical and mental maturity needs special safeguards and care before as well as after birth” that upset him.

“Article 14 “establish effective policies and practices to condemn and remedy abusive relationships within marriage and the family, including the establishment of public agencies to assist men, women and children of families in crisis”.

and “Article 15 “strengthen efforts to promote equal political, economic and social and educational opportunities for women, and evaluate and assess economics, social and other policies to support mothers and fathers in performing their essential roles” would seem to satisfy his concerns.

“Perhaps it was Article 17 which states “reaffirm that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

“And Article 18 reaffirms and respects the liberty of parents to choose for their children schools other than those established by the public authorities.

“Perhaps it was these articles which scared the daylights out of our Government controlled educationalists. For whatever reason, it is not acceptable that New Zealand has not endorsed this document.

“No matter how you look at it, it is just difficult to understand why New Zealand would have disassociated from such a document.

“Is this a case of where ideology has made them blind to good commonsense proposals and recommendations? I recommend people look at the full Declaration available on United Future’s website: www.unitedfuture.org.nz or http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/ga10311.doc.htm

ENDS

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