Traditional countries defended the family against the European Union and progressive delegations, even accusing them of brinkmanship and bad faith, in a UN negotiation about social protection policies. “We would like to remind everyone that the family is defined in binding international human rights instruments as the natural and fundamental group unit of society and that it is entitled to protection from society and the State,” said a delegate from Nigeria as the resolution was adopted in the UN Commission on Social Development on Wednesday. “We regret that certain delegations tried to use language related to the family as a bargaining chip in the negotiations,” the delegate added, explaining that such language “should be non-negotiable.”

Progressive delegations obtained two references to “multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination” in the resolution. This term of art is defined by European donor countries, the United States, and UN agencies as requiring special protections on the basis of homosexual/trans status. A delegate from Malaysia was highly critical of the delegations that attacked the family in the negotiations. “We are deeply disturbed by the systematic attempt to undermine the role of the family,” he said forcefully.

The Nigerian emphasized that it was “especially wrong for delegations to block attempts to protect the family as a pretext to obtain concessions on political priorities that don’t enjoy the same wide consensus.” She said Nigeria did not accept interpretations of the term that include categories “that are not internationally agreed, or that are not recognized in our national laws and policies” and they also said that the use of the term “gender” in the resolution only referred to “the two sexes, male and female, in the context of society, and no other meaning beyond that” in line with past UN agreements. Similar concerns were expressed by delegates from Senegal, Djibouti, Iran, Libya, and Mauritania.

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