How UN Undermines Parental Rights by Pushing Gender Ideology

_{On Dec. 10, the United Nations will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document drafted in the aftermath of World War II under the leadership of American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.}

_{Much has changed since then, including the world body’s understanding of children and of parental rights.}

_{The original draft was the work of a diverse team of diplomats—contributors were communist, Confucian, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. The war had devastated families around the world. To rebuild healthy societies, world leaders recognized the need for strong, intact families.}

_{The U.N. General Assembly enshrined protections for children, parents, and families into three main texts collectively known as the International Bill of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized the right to “found a family” and describes the family as “the natural and fundamental group unit of society, entitled to protection by society and the State.” It recognizes parents’ “prior right” to choose the education of their children.}

_{The U.N.’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) gave legal force to parental rights. All three documents recognize that children fare best when their mothers and fathers are free to raise them according to their religious and moral convictions.}

_{The role of the state, then, is to protect families and support parents as they raise their children.}

_{Convention on the Rights of the Child}

_{In 1989, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the unique importance of parents. This document refers to the child’s right “to know and be cared for” by parents and “to receive appropriate direction and guidance from his or her parents.”}

_{Parents are acknowledged to “have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child.” This is because the child’s best interests are the parents’ basic concern.} 

_{State parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child commit to “respect the rights and duties of parents.” Government respect for the rights and duties of parents is in complete harmony with the rights of children.}

_{A preamble acknowledges that the child’s “physical and mental immaturity” requires special safeguards, including appropriate legal protection. Children lack competence to make some decisions and need a responsible adult to do so on their behalf.}

_{The primary question is: Which adult? As Catholic University professor Melissa Moschella explains, the answer turns on whether children belong to the state or to their families.}  

_{The texts of these foundational U.N. documents point to the family. Under the influence of far-left activists, however, the U.N. bureaucracy for decades pointed to the state. This view of the child diminishes the role of parents, puts children at greater risk of harm, and threatens the integrity of families.}  

_{Gender Dysphoria and Gender Ideology}

_{There are many examples, but this threat is no more obvious than with the recent incursions of gender ideology in various U.N. bureaucracies—where it now enjoys almost credal status.}

_{Gender ideology is a serious threat to families, parental rights, and children’s well-being. It is, in essence, a form of critical theory that subordinates biological sex—male or female—to a person’s supposed “gender identity” or “internal sense of gender.”}

_{This radical ideology often is confused with a psychological disorder now called gender dysphoria. As our Heritage Foundation colleague Jay Richards explains, “gender ideology is the source of the belief that children can be born in the wrong body. It leads [people] to think that if a young girl feels anguish over her body, the doctors should not help her adjust to her body but should change her body and her surroundings … to conform to her ‘gender identity.’”}

_{Gender dysphoria, on the other hand, is a serious mental disorder that causes deep distress with one’s sexed body.}

_{Recent years have seen massive increases in the number of minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria in Europe and North America, almost surely influenced by the spread of gender ideology through media, education, and culture.}

_{Until recently, gender dysphoria occurred mostly in adult males. Now, it is skyrocketing among girls with little prior evidence of gender distress, with an increase of 4,400% over 10 years in the U.K. Researchers surmise that this trend reflects a social contagion and they have come to refer to this phenomenon as rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or ROGD.}

_{Accompanying this increase in gender dysphoria has been the spread of a poorly vetted medical protocol that seeks to modify, through drugs and surgery, a distressed child’s body to conform to his or her declared “gender identity.”}

_{Until recently, gender activists’ protocol was a hypothesis based on a poorly designed and very limited study. But through the advocacy of associations such as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, experimental procedures are treated as preferred interventions for many if not most children suffering from gender dysphoria.}

_{The Medical Evidence: WPATH Agenda vs. European Experience}

_{But this advocacy has an evidential problem. After initially endorsing this protocol, medical authorities in the U.K., Sweden, and Finland conducted systematic reviews of the evidence.}

_{These medical authorities determined that evidence for the benefits for children of medical transitions through puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries is of poor quality and certainly doesn’t outweigh the known risks. These countries are now pursuing a much more cautious approach.}

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