As
reported in a United Nations press
release, at a session of the United Nations General Assembly
on December 6, 2004 a resolution introduced by Qatar and entitled
Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the International
Year of the Family encouraged governments to make every
possible effort to realize the objectives of the tenth anniversary
and to integrate a family perspective in their planning processes.
The text was adopted without a vote as orally revised.
Although
the resolution was adopted without a vote, a number of speakers
subsequently disassociated themselves from the consensus citing
as their primary explanation the omission of language, previously
accepted at international levels, which recognized that the
family structure could take various forms. Hugh Adsett, speaking
for Canada, dissociated our country from the consensus. According
to Adesett, a faculty member at the University of Ottawa's
Faculty of Law and a member of Canada's Department of Foreign
Affairs, Canada continued to attach great importance to the
family and to family-related issues. However, Canada was concerned
by what was not in the draft. Different forms of the family
existed in different cultural, political, and social systems,
as had previously been recognized in many international forums.
