Statements and Speeches by Ministry Representatives 2004

New Zealand Explanation of Position

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family Statement by the New Zealand Permanent Representative to the UN, Don MacKay, 6 December 2004

Mr President

Without exception, New Zealand has been an active participant in United Nations debates on the family and have joined consensus on family resolutions in the past.  We believe that families are the fundamental building blocks of our communities, our societies and our nations.  We must support them. And we must commit ourselves to recognising the family as a source of strength, belonging and cohesion.  

Mr President, more than most countries, we have been prepared to back up our words with action.  In the course of the past year, New Zealand has announced two major initiatives to support the family.  Together these initiatives represent the most significant advances in support of the family and in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child in decades. 

Firstly, New Zealand has established a Commission for the Family to advocate for the family within government and in the community. Secondly, New Zealand has announced government financial assistance for families, entitled the “Working for Families” package.  This will deliver more than $100 per week extra to low and middle income families with dependent children throughout our country. 

Mr President, New Zealand’s commitment to the family is indisputable. We are, therefore, disappointed that our views during the negotiations of this resolution and others like it, have been misrepresented as ‘anti-family’.  Let me, therefore, take the time to be clear about why we object to elements of this resolution. 

New Zealand is increasingly concerned that the debate on the family is becoming a vehicle for attacking longstanding consensus agreements on tolerance of family diversity and recognising the rights of women and children.  We are concerned that the Doha Declaration, for example, omits a longstanding agreed reference to the fact that many forms of the family exist, and contains no reference to the rights of women and children.  The Declaration should have acknowledged that the rights of individuals within families should also be protected, and that individuals have the right to leave family environments where their well-being is at risk.  Given that the Doha Declaration is inconsistent with United Nations agreements reached at Cairo, Beijing and Copenhagen, we are concerned that this is being noted in this resolution.  It is particularly unusual for this Assembly to note documents that were produced by conferences to which not all governments were invited.  

Mr President, many forms of the family do exist. That is the reality.  We cannot ignore it.  In New Zealand, our families are increasingly diverse, reflecting the diversity of our people’s cultures and circumstances.   The Secretary-General referred to this increasing diversity of families in his statement this morning.   We regret that this text and the Doha Declaration together promote only one model of the family at the expense of others, and in so doing break a longstanding consensus on such matters.  New Zealand would like, therefore, to disassociate itself from the consensus on this resolution.

Thank you Mr President

2004 speech index