The Global Forum for Life, Family and Freedoms, a group of legislators, diplomats and pro-life organisation leaders from across the globe, met in Manhattan (New York) on 17 and 18 September.

The aim of the meeting was to promote the creation of the first Pro-Life Core Group at the United Nations.

This initiative seeks to counterbalance the influence of the UN LGBTI Core Group, which was formally established in 2008 and now comprises 40 countries.

All Evangelical Focus news and opinion, on your WhatsApp

The organisers described the Global Forum for Life and the Family as "an adventure of faith" and "the sowing of a seed", which they hope will grow into a diplomatic instrument able to coordinate the positions, strategies and actions among nations that defend life, the family and fundamental freedoms.

Strategic void at the UN

The forum began on Thursday 17th with speeches by internationally recognised figures, including Valerie Huber, president of the Institute for Women’s Health and a key negotiator of the Geneva Consensus Declaration; Rebeca Oas and Stefano Gennarini, analysts at the Centre for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam); and Bethany Kozma, director of US Global Affairs.

There was also a significant political presence, with senators and members of parliaments from various countries, as well as a video message from US Under-Secretary of State Christopher Landau, supporting the initiative.

The forum’s organisers and participants stressed that, while the pro-LGBT+ core group has become the epicentre of initiatives, resolutions, protocols and expert groups on sexual diversity, and channels millions in funding to sustain the global lobby for that agenda, there is no equivalent group defending life and the family.

Global reports and a political shift in the Americas

The second day featured strategic reports on the political and social situation in Asian countries; a detailed report on religious persecution in Nigeria; an analysis of the state of the European Economic Community; an assessment of the “spectacular political shift” in the Americas; and a study of the internal workings of the UN and the urgent need to establish a pro-life core group.

Attendees agreed that the challenge is both conceptual and operational: how to replicate the discipline, coordination, and advocacy capacity of the LGBTI group from an agenda centred on the defence of life and the family.

The Geneva Consensus Declaration as a foundation

Several speakers pointed out that the pro-life movement has a well-established international platform: the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), which affirms that there is no international right to abortion, upholds the sovereignty of states in health policy, and recognises the family as the fundamental unit of society.

The GCD now brings together more than 40 nations, and the United States has recently resumed its role as the secretariat.

The next step, they said, is to transform this consensus into sustained diplomatic coordination, something that only a Core Group could guarantee.

First agreement: A convening committee

Recognising the complexity of the process, which requires consensus among governments and formal acceptance within the multilateral system, the participants agreed to set up a convening committee, to design a system for the coordination of governments; draw up a letter of accession for interested states; and outline the diplomatic steps required to seek official recognition as a Pro-Life Core Group at the UN.

The participants believe that the agreement is “a major step” and the start of a phase that could redefine the presence of the pro-life movement on the international stage.

At the end of the sessions, the organisers expressed their satisfaction with the quality of the discussions and the diversity of the participants, who came from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

“May God bless the work of our hands”, they concluded, reaffirming the spiritual nature that underpinned the entire process.

The project is now in the hands of the Organising Committee, which must transform this initiative into a formal diplomatic proposal to the United Nations.

If successful, New York will have been the birthplace of the first pro-life bloc within the world's most influential multilateral system.