Sheikha Fatima gets world family award

The World Family Organisation (WFO) on Wednesday presented the 2012 World Family Award to Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union and of the Family Development Foundation and Chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood. The award was presented during a ceremony organised by the United Nations at its headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) annual meeting which was devoted this year to “Abu Dhabi Declaration” issued during the 7th Summit of the WFO which was held in the Capital on December 5-7, 2011, under the patronage of Shaikha Fatima in collaboration with a number of UN entities concerned and attended by representatives of 76 countries. The award was received on behalf of Shaikha Fatima by Nora Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the General Women’s Union, in the presence of Ambassador Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al-Jarman, UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN, and the accompanying delegation from the General Women’s Union, in addition to a number of members of the UAE’s diplomatic corps, senior officials in the international organisation and representatives of a number of NGOs participating in the meeting. ‘The Abu Dhabi Declaration — Families in Balance: Working Our Way Towards Sustainable Development — Making Decent Work and Social Protection a Global Reality for All Family Members’ was submitted to the UN’s ECOSOC and accepted as the first proposal on sustainable development and poverty eradication that takes into account the family perspective. In a speech on the occasion, Al Suwaidi said the declaration encompasses the ECOSOC 2011’s main theme, the MDG (millennium development goals) 1, and the review of the current global and national trends and challenges, and their impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development in all sectors of the society. It also aligns with the theme of the high-level segment of the ECOSOC in 2012. “It is the outcome of discussion and reflection of 76 countries representing all five continents, governments, parliamentarians, judicial systems, private sector and civil society during the 7th Summit of the World Family Organisation on how to approach those issues and how to deal with the present economic and financial challenges.” It is a reaffirmation of the international community’s commitment and partnership towards making the future world live in more peace, security, justice, tolerance, solidarity and prosperity by mobilising and promoting the basic cell of society — the family — through the engagement of all sectors of the society. It recognises the high importance of full and productive employment and decent work opportunities and protection for all family members, especially youth and women, and the elimination of discrimination based on gender, age, ethnicity or disability, and urges that they should be put at the heart of crisis response, and it advocates for a green economy regulatory framework for the creation of decent and green objectives which support sustainable development. It calls upon all governments, the private sector, civil society and community leaders to work to create work environments that respect human right principles for all and implement international labour laws. It emphasises the important role of the family in promoting the education of mediation and peace and calls upon governments to develop laws that support families in the eradication of domestic and gender-based violence and highlight the role of mediation in dispute and conflict resolution.