July 13, 2011

Sexual Rights at the Forefront of World Youth Conference

Camps, internships, and youth conferences – they’re the stuff of summer for many young people.  Few are aware, however, that youth are gathering July 25-26 in New York to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Year of Youth (1985).  This promises to be a “youth conference” unlike any that you or your children may have attended.  The UN’s High Level Meeting on Youth will draw young people from around the world and it promises to be an interesting and exciting time for our UFI team.  Five young adults will be there representing United Families International.  They are:

Niels Wankier – Cedar City, Utah
Ashley Tucker – Mesa, Arizona
Desiree Davenport – Cedar Rapids Iowa
Faith Goimarac – Sedona, Arizona
Ben Davenport – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Originally the UN was going to allow eight young adults per UN accredited Non-governmental Organization (NGO), but just weeks before the event, that number was reduced to five.  United Families International is grateful to each of these five young people for their willingness to train and attend – to be your pro-family voice for this important conference.

According to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, this event will be the culmination of a year-long effort to “give youth an active part in the decision-making of local, national and global levels.”   So what types of decision-making might these young people have the opportunity to be involved in?  One of the IYY websites lists such things as youth employment, youth and climate change, youth and hunger, HIV and young people, youth volunteerism, youth with disabilities, etc.  Much of what will be discussed at this World Youth Conference has merit and is worthy of dialogue, but UFI is also concerned that the usual anti-family, anti-life agenda will also play a heavy role in these meetings.

We are confident that groups like International Planned Parenthood (IPPF), Population Council, and other feminists and sexual rights organizations will have heavy youth representation there in New York.  Our plan is to have prepared young people also in attendance who can counter that anti-family voice.
Sometimes we feel like a broken record as we tell you about the things that are promoted at the UN.  This time our young adults will be the ones dealing with attempts to redefine gender, the early sexualization of children, the promotion of homosexual behavior and rights, the redefinition of family, and the incessant promotion of abortion.  All of this is done under the guise of trying to help the people of the world.

Some of the groups mentioned above have already released publications intended to influence young people and most disturbing, they attempt to train youth to be advocates for sexual rights.  You can go to an IPPF website here and view a new program targeted to youth that they are calling “Exclaim!”   The first link that we clicked on was one entitled:  “Criminalize Hate, not HIV.”  We want to warn you, however, that much of the material is very graphic and disturbing.

If you do some reading of the “Exclaim!” publication you’ll find this line:  “Governments must respect, protect, and fulfill all sexual rights for young people.”  Like us, you may be wondering how the government is supposed to “fulfill all sexual rights for young people.”  We assure you that IPPF and the other groups who work alongside them are very serious about this statement.  They will continue to work to give their agenda the weight of an international human right.   Sexual rights also includes the right to abortion upon demand and the recent successes of the pro-life movement have caused the pro-aborts to pull out all stops to ensure that they do not continue to lose ground.

United Families International and our teams of young people have been very successful at past UN meetings that were promoted as youth gatherings. Several years ago, members of a UFI youth team were able to position themselves as leaders of the youth forums and discussion groups.  That enabled them, as official representatives, to give pro-family/pro-life statements before the General Assembly.  It was an incredible moment!  These young people were able to thwart our opposition’s well-laid plans.  Our hope is to make this conference a continuation of those successful efforts.

Again, we extend gratitude and good wishes to these capable young people and their families for the sacrifices they are making to make a difference in the world.  Truly our future lies in the hands of these great  young leaders and UFI is honored to contribute to their training in the UN arena.  If you would like to donate to their experience, please do so by clicking this link. 

Cordially,

Carol Soelberg
President, United Families International