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Catholic World News News Feature

Chinese "family" summit hosted by extreme liberal groups December 16, 2004

Following close on the heels of the pro-life and pro-family Doha (Qatar) International Conference on the Family, pro-abortion groups met in a similar four-day conference in Sanya, China, last week in what some see as an attempt to counteract the Doha platform. The World Family Summit was sponsored mainly by the Chinese government and organized in part by China's National Population and Family Planning Commission. The UN also played an unofficial but active role in organizing the conference, and many representatives of feminist, gay, and pro-abortion movements participated.

Like the Doha Conference, this summit also claimed the role of observing the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family. However, unlike the Doha Conference, which was welcomed by the UN General Assembly as an official commemoration of that anniversary, this summit was neither recognized nor sanctioned by the UN. Moreover, the summit opened on December 6, the very day that the UN officially ended its year-long celebration of the International Year of the Family with a consensus resolution that recognized the Doha Declaration, co-sponsored by 149 countries, as an outcome of that celebration and did not mention the summit.

The participants in the summit adopted the Sanya Declaration, which is subtitled, "The World Declaration for a Global Family Policy." In contrast to the Doha Declaration, which called upon states to "ensure that the inherent dignity of human beings is recognized and protected through all stages of life," the Sanya Declaration states the need for a reduction in "unwanted pregnancies" through the increased availability of "reproductive health services, especially family planning."

Further, while the Doha Declaration called upon countries to "uphold, preserve, and defend the institution of marriage," the Sanya Declaration says that families are "as different as alike," and "various forms of the family exist in different social, cultural, legal, and political systems," and insists that "respecting their diversity and peculiarity is mandatory."

The Sanya Declaration also calls upon states to "encourage the participation of adolescents in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of... health programs that include sexual and reproductive health," while the Doha Declaration asked nations to "reaffirm and respect the liberty of parents... to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions."

The summit also hosted several exhibitions by Chinese companies involved in the research and manufacturing of contraceptive, abortive, and sexual enhancement products, including the China Family Planning Association, a full member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).