Statement by: Ms Paige Likos, Adviser, Australian Mission to the UN

As delivered

Thank you Chair,

I deliver this statement on behalf of Canada, New Zealand and my own country, Australia.

This resolution is important to our delegations.

Every year, we engage diligently and constructively in the negotiations with the aim to strengthen it and protect its consensus.

It is in this vein that we reiterate our disappointment with the negotiation process this year.

CANZ again expresses our disappointment that a resolution on promoting families cannot support language on sexual and reproductive health-care services, critical to maternal and infant health, and to the well-being of families.

Our concerns to strengthen language on this important issue were not heard or addressed, and we find the exclusion of sexual and reproductive health-care services unacceptable.

Despite this, CANZ still joined consensus on this resolution because we believe that all families must be promoted and protected.

Chair, we value and recognise the important role families play in our communities, and in realising the enjoyment of the human rights of all their members.

Families are represented in many forms.

Families can comprise a household including a mum, dad and one or more children.

Families can also comprise of single parents, children with same-sex parents, and adopted families, among many others.

In some cultures, an immediate family includes grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.

Chair, our delegations are concerned by efforts to diminish the human rights of individuals as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which impedes gender equality and undermines the human rights of everyone, especially women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons.

It goes against respect for cultural diversity and acceptance, which are crucial to the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, we urge all member states to celebrate families in all their forms.

Thank you.