From The Exception Magazine: Since 1978 United Families International (UFI) has protected the family as the fundamental unit of society. As a non-denominational, non-partisan, non-profit organization, UFI is an internationally recognized pro-family voice. Through social science research, UFI works to strengthen the family by promoting the traditional family, marriage between a man and a woman, the sanctity of life, the right and obligation of parents to love, protect, provide for and teach their children, and the right of nations to determine their own laws and customs.
The chapter development program at UFI creates grass roots involvement by educating and advocating in behalf of family policy on national, state and local issues. Through this program UFI is building an army of unified voices in support of the traditional family.
UFI also participates at the United Nations in negotiations to produce key outcome documents that set family policies throughout the world. UFI representatives make several trips to the UN each year. In fact, from March 2nd through March 13th of this year UFI will be at the UN to protect families from the liberal agenda in the 2009 Commission on the Status of Women.
On 21 June 1946, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established as a full-fledged United Nations Commission dedicated to ensuring women’s equality and to promoting women’s rights. Its mandate was to “prepare recommendations and reports to the Economic and Social Council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields” and to make recommendations “on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights.”
UFI began attending CSW to monitor the documents that were being produced and adopted by this Commission and offer support to delegates and missions that shared our views. Over the years UFI has played an increasingly important role as a strong voice in favor of the family as the fundamental unit of society. At this time, UFI is part of a coalition that lobbies on behalf of the pro-family position. The UFI team will travel to CSW equipped with resources that can help bolster the position of like-minded individuals engaged in negotiations. The resources, information and moral support offered to the pro-family negotiators is incredibly helpful and gives them the strength they need to stand against the rising tide of anti-family sentiment at CSW.
UFI is dedicated to informing and educating on key issues affecting the family. UFI publishes its Family Issues Guides, which are peer-reviewed scientific research, expert commentary and sound logical arguments pertaining to several topics including: the benefits of traditional marriage, the harms of pornography, the consequences of divorce, sexual orientation, abortion, and the differences between cohabitation and marriage. UFI compiles the publications after reviewing a vast number of social science studies, books, and other sources that cover the topics of each Family Issue Guide. The publications are used by several pro-family organizations and other non-governmental organizations to educate lawmakers and government officials on the various issues.
UFI has been a part of several pro-family victories at the UN. UFI’s Negotiating Guide is used by pro-family NGOs around the world as the leading resource for UN family language needed for negotiations.
The organization uncovered and exposed UNICEF’s agenda to provide to children explicit sexual education materials promoting sexual behaviors too perverse to mention. UFI then presented these materials, along with proof that UNICEF was promoting abortion, to U.N. delegates in the heat of negotiations at the U.N. World Summit on Children. This helped overturn the abortion language in the outcome document.
UFI was also an instrumental in stopping the U.S. funding of $34 million to the U.N. Fund for Population activities (UNFPA), which supports forced abortion and sterilizations in China. UFI’s memorandum was instrumental in helping to defeat the funding proposal for UNFPA on the floor of the US Senate.
Last December UFI, along with a coalition of social conservative groups from around the world, presented a petition of 340,000 names requesting that all member nations and states interpret the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to mean that:
The right to life, liberty and security is for every person; that each child born or unborn, has the right to birth and a full, natural life. That a child has the right to a mother and a father, of full age, within the bonds of marriage defined as between a man and a woman. And, that the parents have the right to raise and educate their children without any limitation due to race, religion, culture or nationality.
The petition was a response to opposition petition efforts by pro-abortion groups International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International that demanded that the UDHR be interpreted to include that access to abortion is a human right and the UDHR should be interpreted as such. This opposition petition was signed by a mere 651 individuals.
Through their Family Issues Guides, social and scientific research, more than 30 years of experience, and a passion for defending the definition of family and the rights of parents and the unborn, United Families International is a well-armored stronghold and a leader on the front lines in the war on the family. UFI provides a safe haven for families across the globe who seek a place to raise their voices in defense of the family. For this generation of families and the next, United Families International will continue fighting for families, marriage, parental rights, and national sovereignty for the next 30 years and beyond.