Forum: The family is the basic unit of society
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Jeanne d'Arc Gakuba was born in exile. Her parents fled their country of Rwanda years before her birth in 1961 amidst political turmoil. She speaks of the genocide that killed hundreds of thousands and left children to live in the streets or to head households because families had been destroyed by violence.
Today, she lives back in the land of her parents' birth and serves as deputy mayor for her town, Kilgali. Her business card reads: "In Charge of Gender and Promotion of Women." She is also a wife and mother of four children. And she has great hope for her beloved Rwanda.
That is why she came to Utah the week of July 14, to be one of some 100 international leaders, diplomats, representatives of non-governmental organizations and local government leaders attending the 5th annual World Family Policy Forum at BYU sponsored by the World Family Policy Center. She and the others from 38 countries attended three days of sessions on the role of the natural family in society. They were also hosted at the Church's Welfare Square, the Humanitarian Service Center, Temple Square, the Conference Center and the Family History Library.
For Jeanne d'Arc Gakuba, the forum gave her some insight on how to strengthen her country. "My country needs help. We need ideas from friends. We need to connect with other people, some institution so we can get enough energy and enough hope. For me, I discovered the importance of starting with the family, to start by rebuilding the family. The family is the base of the society and the society makes the country."
She echoed the sentiments of those attending a dinner July 16 at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City during which they were welcomed to Church headquarters by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve. Along with Elder Scott's brief opening and closing remarks was an address given by Sheri L. Dew, president and chief executive officer of Deseret Book Company and a former member of the Relief Society general presidency. Also, the delegates were entertained by the International Children's Choir, which sang a variety of songs in different languages.
"We are so grateful for your presence, your participation in this extraordinarily important effort to protect the traditional family," Elder Scott told the delegates. "We do believe that this effort to destroy the family is motivated by evil designs and are unalterably opposed to that. We welcome the companionships, the collaboration, the insight and wisdom that each of you brings to this forum. I'm confident as we travel throughout the world there are many who would fight strongly for the family if they understood what is opposing it. . . .
"Although we come from very different backgrounds and cultures and some of the principles that we adhere to may differ, we are all convinced that only through the natural family which God organized as His basis of society can we continue to enjoy the blessings and freedoms and advantages that flow from living those things. We pray for you and invoke a blessing on your individual efforts and your work together."
Elder Scott emphasized the need for a united front and the tremendous impact such a front can have not only in the United Nations but also in countries throughout the world.
In her address, Sister Dew spoke of research that supports the importance of strong marriages and families in society. "The research looks to me to be conclusive and overwhelming that talks about the fact that stable marriages and stable families create stable people and stable people lead to a stable society. It just looks that simple to me."
The delegates attending the dinner showed their agreement and approval by giving Sister Dew a standing ovation at the conclusion of her remarks. And they later echoed their agreement in statements made to the Church News. One such delegate was Abdalla Khalid Abdalla, an adviser to the mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations.
"We want to get back our commitment to the family, to the promotion and the strengthening of the family," he said. "We want to get back our commitment to work together and stand together to protect the values of the United Nations and face bravely the other agenda which is in fact destroying the concept of the family and the meaning of the natural family which is the basic unit of society.
"The disintegration of the family is the disintegration of the society," he added.
Farooq Hassan, senior advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and adviser on law and foreign affairs to the prime minister of Pakistan, expressed support for what the Church "is doing in terms of ethics and morals." He said the international level of support brought to the forum "is really a very high quality."
Richard G. Wilkins, a professor at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and managing director of the World Family Policy Center, expressed delight by this same level of international support. "We were told by the [U.S.] State Department this year that this is the largest gathering of high level diplomatic corps outside of an official U.N. venue," he said.
Those attending, he said, ranged from deputy mayors of towns to ambassadors to the second-in-command for China's diplomatic corps.
The World Family Policy Center, sponsored by the J. Reuben Clark Law School and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, in partnership with BYU's School of Family Life, facilitates international policy debate by serving as an exchange point for the discussion and evaluation of emerging international legal norms and as an active participant in the examination of United Nations documents.
E-mail: julied@desnews.com
