EU Explanation of Position – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: After adoption of the resolution on the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family and beyond

Mr President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. 

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia^*, Montenegro^*, Serbia^*, Albania^* and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

At the outset, we thank Qatar for their facilitation of this text on behalf of the G77. 

The EU joined consensus on this resolution, and we wish to make this statement to express our position on the text. 

This year’s resolution includes some important elements on policies aimed at protecting families from the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation and natural disasters. 

At the same time, we regret that most of our proposals were not accepted in the text, such as the reference to disaster risk reduction policies, the disproportionate effect of climate change, particularly on women and girls in vulnerable situations, as well as resilience and adaptive capacity-building and the promotion of women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in related decision-making processes.  

For policies to be successful, they must be inclusive and responsive to the changing needs and expectations of families. Across the EU, as in the rest of the world, families have changed and continue to change with time in response to economic and social developments, illustrating the fact that families are living, evolving, dynamic entities. The European Union and its Member States have been taking action on family policies for several decades and we share the view of many in this room about the valuable contribution that families can make to strengthening our societies and the need for Member States to develop policies to support them in this role. 

Different situations and conditions require tailored and responsive policies and approaches. In this spirit, the European Union and its Member States continue to stress that in all discussions on families and family policies we must recognize, as we did at the various UN conferences and summits of the 1990s and in their follow-up processes, that in different cultural, social and political systems, various forms of the family exist. We understand all references to the term “family” within this resolution as reflecting this fact, and we reiterate the need for a gender-responsive, child- and age-sensitive and family-friendly approach to relevant policy making, with full respect to human rights and work-life balance, and the importance of promoting gender equality within families. 

We further reaffirm that States have the primary responsibility to promote, protect, and fulfil human rights and fundamental freedoms of all family members, consistent with their obligations under international human rights law. We regret that, despite our attempts, this fact is not reflected in the resolution.

We will continue to engage constructively with partners in order to further advance our conversations on family-related matters and policies in the context of the UN.

Thank you. 
 

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.