Seguring a future for children: the internacional obligation to protect and assist the natural family

Abstract

The paper argues that Art. 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become customary international law, and therefore, all States are obliged to promote, protect and give preference to the natural family based on marriage between one male and one female (in a nuclear or extended family arrangement) over so-called “new family forms” (e.g. cohabitating opposite-sex and/or same-sex couples). This means that States breach their obligation under Art. 16 (3) when they treat so-called alternative forms of families as equivalent to the family based on heterosexual marriage (i.e. giving the same benefits). The paper uses Canada as a case study to illustrate how it has breached its obligations. To this end, the paper will consider how and why the Canadian federal government has contributed to the crisis of the natural family in Canada as manifested through increasing rates of separation and divorce as well as of alternative family forms (i.e. cohabitation arrangements and so forth) and their treatment as equivalent to the natural family.