By LILIA VELBOVETS
BYU law professor Richard Wilkins has taken the message of ?The Family: A Proclamation to the World,? from his home to the floor of the United Nations meetings.
As a result of Wilkins? and Family Policy Center work in 2004, the teachings of the proclamation made an impact around the globe. The center, together with members of BYU faculty from numerous disciplines, worked with national governments and non-governmental organizations to organize The Doha International Conference for the Family in Qatar, which resulted in the Doha Declaration.
?Building on the Doha Declaration? was the theme of a three-day conference that ended Wednesday at the World Family Policy Forum hosted by BYU, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the proclamation. Diplomats from more than 30 nations met to discuss the importance of the family and the declaration.
The Doha Declaration is an international document that proclaims marriage to be between a husband and wife and declares the family to be the fundamental unit of society. The declaration explains that strong families provide the basis for social growth and development.
The declaration was a result of the battle Wilkins started nine years ago and continues today, with other BYU faculty. Using principles found in the proclamation, the group works together to defend the importance of the family in legal and social science terminology at U. N. conventions and international policymaking meetings.
“We take the very best scholarship from BYU and around the world, and we make sure that this scholarship comes to the attention of folks who are making governmental decisions,” Wilkins said.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received the proclamation in 1995 and couldn?t have agreed more with the teachings presented. For most church members, the information was simply an official statement of what they already knew and practiced.
Today, the idea that marriage involves the union of a man and a woman must be defended and explained, due to claims by gay-rights activists and other groups that gender is irrelevant to marriage.
Research shows the need to protect the traditional meaning of marriage.
For example, The Report from Family Scholars “Why Marriage Matters,” explains that many changes in the definition of marriage over the past two-generation have had negative results such as, ?increased incidence and social acceptance of divorce, cohabitation, premarital sex, and unwed childbearing.?
Scholars from around the United States said in the report that ?marriage is an important social good, associated with an impressively broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike.?
BYU law professor Scott Loveless said from the proclamation people learn that the family is the ?source of caring, protection, shelter and refuge from the storms of the world.?
“Its sounds emotional and flowery, but there are social science basis for it,” Loveless said. “People are having a higher sense of well-being when they belong in a trusting relationship of marriage and family rather than in the sense of isolation.”
The importance of these simple truths is highly debated in the United States following a recent court decision in Massachusetts concerning homosexual marriage. There, four state judges shocked the nation by interpreting the state constitution to require creating a new law that protects homosexual marriage.
Responses from the general public have been mixed, but mostly negative.
“What the decision of the Massachusetts court did is wake people up,” Loveless said.
Since the controversial decision Loveless said at least 11 states have passed constitutional amendments defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Many of the developments in U.S. law related to marriage come from legal norms developed at U.N. negotiations, he said. The U.N. Web site states, ?U.N. norms provide a framework for promoting international peace and security and economic and social development,? and explains countries are often legally bound to comply with these rules.
Legal scholars play an important role in the creation of international documents. Wilkins said for at least 700 years, policy makers have relied on law professors to create and explain to the world what international treaties mean.
There are numerous international documents that support the values of the proclamation. One is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written after World War II when countries united and proclaimed: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.?
The importance of the family had finally gained a place in society ? or so it seemed. But, as countries worked to recover from the devastation left by war, the dynamics of the family continued to deteriorate. Mothers began working outside of the home and children were left unattended or in day care.
The Cold War represented more difficulties for policies protecting the family. With countries at war one with another, the influence of the United Nations fell by the wayside. During this period, legal and social scholars began to promote the idea of autonomy and individualism, which Loveless says has had a destructive influence on the family.
“The trend of individualism is focusing on [the] individual, and individual desires and appetites and measuring things only in terms of economics and not relational quality,” he said.
Examples of individualism can be found in the communist and socialist regime of the former USSR where the focus was on the good of the state and technology development instead of on family life and parenthood.
Loveless said trends such as no-fault divorce, cohabitation, abortion and same-sex marriage are expressions resulting from individualism in society today.
