The World Congress of Families (WCF) is a United States coalition that promotes Christian right values internationally.[2] It opposes divorce, birth control, same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, while supporting a society built on "the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage".[3][4][5][6] WCF comprises organizations in several countries, and most of its member partners are strongly active campaigners against abortion rights and same-sex marriage.[7] WCF was formed in 1997 and is active worldwide, regularly organizing conventions.[8] Its opposition to gay marriage and abortion has attracted criticism.[9]
In 2014, following its involvement with the 2013 Russian LGBT propaganda law, the Southern Poverty Law Center added WCF to the list of organizations it considers as anti-LGBT groups.[10][11][12][13] WCF has also been influential in Africa. A 2015 report by Human Rights Campaign pointed to WCF's influence on anti-LGBT laws in Nigeria and Uganda,[14] while the director of the NGO Rightify Ghana noted in 2021 that, after the WCF conference in Ghana's capital city of Accra in late 2019, "there was a rush to push legislation" against LGBT in Ghana.[15] The organization has received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.[16][17][18]
Background
Allan C. Carlson, President of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, initiated the congress on the basis of article 16c of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, saying: "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state".[19] According to WCF, its purpose is to "stand up for the position of the traditional family, in a time of eroding family life and declining appreciation for families in general". The coalition defines "the natural family" as the "union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage"[20] and works with other organizations, previously including the World Family Policy Center at Brigham Young University (BYU) to promote its views.[21] The Human Rights Campaign called WCF "one of the most influential groups in America promoting and coordinating the exportation of anti-LGBT bigotry, ideology, and legislation abroad" and stated that their international conferences comprise "the most fringe activists engaged in anti-LGBT extremism".[8][22] According to the HRC, the WCF and its affiliates are also linked to anti-LGBT advocacy in numerous countries, including on the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, the Russian LGBT propaganda law, and Nigeria.[8]
The WCF is controversial for its opposition to legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation,[23][24] opposition to same sex marriage,[25] and support for policies against homosexuality in Russia.[26] It was added to the SPLC's list of active hate groups in 2014. The WCF responded to hate group designations by publishing a report addressing the 25-plus accusations made by the SPLC and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), including their labeling the WCF as a hate group.[27] In response to the WCF report, Ty Cobb, director of HRC Global, did not react to the factual errors in his own report and just said "WCF's explanations do little to mask its record of anti-LGBT rhetoric or those of organizations it partners with around the world."[27]
Following initial planning in 2010,[29] the WCF sponsored the July 2011 Moscow Demographic Summit, which formulated a communique calling on governments to develop "a pro-family demographic policy and to adopt a special international pro-family strategy and action plan aimed at consolidating family and marriage, protecting human life from conception to natural death, increasing birth rates, and averting the menace of depopulation."[30]
In London in 2012, the WCF were refused permission to hire out the facilities of the Law Society for an event entitled One man. One woman. Making the case for marriage for the good of society,[31] and had to find an alternative venue.[32]
In 2013, Mark Kirk, the Republican Senator for Illinois revoked the WCF access to a Senate meeting room in the U.S. Capitol.[33]
Larry Jacobs was invited to Russia to advise Russian Orthodox leaders in setting up Christian right coalitions that unite Protestant Evangelical and Roman Catholic groups opposing legalized abortion.[37] Larry Jacobs has been a strong advocate of the Russian LGBT propaganda law, commenting that "The Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world"[38][39] The coalition stated "Russia, with its historic commitment to deep spirituality and morality, can be a hope for the natural family supporters from all over the world"[40] Jacobs commented that "The Kremlin used to be a no-no for conservatives," but added "We're going to redeem that building."[41]
In 2016 WCF rebranded with an umbrella organization called International Organization for the Family.[42]
The 2009 conference in Amsterdam met with some controversy when the government minister André Rouvoet addressed the congress despite requests from other Dutch Parliamentarians that he should not do so.[52] Their local offices were defaced with paint, obscenities and anti-Christian slogans by unknown vandals, but the WCF said they would not be intimidated by radical opposition. The WCF comprises Christian, Islamic, and secular leaders, and the Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands was scheduled to speak at the conference.[53]
Prior to the 2013 WCF conference, Sydney politician Alex Greenwich sought to ensure that the conference complied with anti-discrimination legislation.[54] One of the reports presented to the conference said that children raised in two-parent families do best at school.[55]
The 2014 WCF conference was scheduled to be held in September in Russia,[56] and was promoted as "the 'Olympics' of the international Pro-Life movement supporting the Natural Family".[57] Because of the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by Russia, planning for the conference was suspended.[58][59]
The 2017 WCF conference was held in Hungary. The right wing Prime minister of Hungary Viktor Orban spoke at the event.[62]
The 2019 WCF conference was held in March in Verona, Italy. The deputy prime minister and leader of the League Matteo Salvini spoke at the event with a speech that spanned topics from population decline to illegal immigration and a critique of feminism.[63] Scheduled speakers included Moldova's president Igor Dodon, Hungary's Families Minister Katalin Novak,[64] and Dmitri Smirnov, a senior figure in the Russian Orthodox Church.[65]
WCF Regional Conferences
In August 2014, the WCF held a regional conference in Melbourne Australia[7][66] that was met with protests.[67][68][69] The Senate of Australia passed a motion to condemn the conference after several MPs and government ministers announced their intention to speak at the conference and four successive venues refused to host the conference.[70][71] Federal social services minister Kevin Andrews was noted by the Senate as a recipient of the WCF's "Natural Family Man of the Year" award.[70][72] Four of these ministers later pulled out of the conference because the conference was hosted by the controversial Christian group Catch the Fire.[73][74][75] Kevin Andrews, who was the international ambassador for the 2013 conference, has been promoted as the international ambassador for the World Congress of Families.[a] After the conference, Andrews asked the WCF to remove a reference to him as "international ambassador" from their promotional material.[80]
The WCF held an African Regional Conference in Ghana in 2019.[81]
Gallery
Larry Jakobs, Brian Brown, Allan C. Carlson - World Congress of Families XI
^ The Howard Center listed Andrews as an ambassador in 2013.[76] In March 2014 the WCF referred to Andrews as the international Ambassador:[77] The Age referred to marketing materials on July 15.[78] The Sydney Morning Herald made reference on July 25.[79]
^Buss, Doris; Herman, Didi (2003). Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN9781452906447. As quoted in "About World Congress of Families 9". World Congress of Families. Archived from the original on 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2014-08-31. Feminist law professors Doris Buss and Didi Herman wrote, "In terms of international activism, it is through deployment of natural family discourse that the [Christian Right] has had the most success in forging global alliances with other religious movements."
^ ab*"American Conservatives Organize Social-Issues Conference in Poland". Fox News/Associated Press. 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014. The chief organizer is a Rockford, Illinois-based conservative think tank, the Howard Center. Co-sponsors include more than 20 other U.S. groups allied in opposition to abortion, gay marriage and other policies they blame for weakening traditional families in Western Europe. See also DAVID CRARY (25 March 2014). "US Conservatives Suspend Plans for Moscow Meeting". Associated Press. A U.S.-based conservative group that supports Russia's efforts to curtail gay rights and abortion is suspending its plans for an international conference in Moscow
^Roonemaa, Holger; Laine, Martin; Weiss, Michael (24 March 2022). "Exclusive: Russia Backs Europe's Far Right". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 24 March 2022. The WCF is sponsored by Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, yet another U.S.-sanctioned Russian oligarch.
^Tétreault, Mary Ann & Denemark, Robert A. (2004). Gods, Guns, and Globalization: Religious Radicalism and International Political Economy. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. pp. 66–67. ISBN978-1588262530.
^SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY (9 June 2011). "Russians Adopt U.S. Tactics in Opposing Abortion". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-08-31. Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families, based in Rockford, Illinois, attended the Sanctity of Motherhood forum and praised Russia's new activists as allies. He has met with Metropolitan Hilarion... Hilarion highlighted a vocal anti-abortion stance as a uniting factor between Russian Orthodoxy and Protestant evangelicals. He has said they should form a "strategic alliance" with Roman Catholics.
^ ab"Parlinfo Social Issues—World Congress of Families". Senate Hansard. Australian Parliament House. 28 August 2014. Senator Waters, pursuant to notice of motion not objected to as a formal motion, moved general business notice of motion no. 391—That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) the World Congress of Families is responsible for spreading: (a) homophobic and sexist prejudices around the world, including in Russia, the United States, and countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, and (b) harmful myths, including linking abortion with breast cancer and contraception with domestic violence, (ii) the World Congress of Families is holding a conference in Melbourne on Saturday, 30 August 2014, (iii) the Minister for Social Services (Mr Andrews) is planning to attend the conference and give an opening address, and has been awarded the 2014 Natural Family Man of the Year award by the World Congress of Families, and (iv) other state and federal Members of Parliament are also planning to attend the conference; (b) reaffirms the: (i) fundamental Australian values of equality, tolerance and non-discrimination, and (ii) value and dignity of all persons regardless of their gender, sexuality, or family status; and (c) calls on Members of Parliament not to attend the World Congress of Families conference. Question put and passed.
^Safi, Michael (26 August 2014). "Kevin Andrews named 'Natural Family Man of the Year' by Christian group". The Guardian. A conservative Christian group holding its annual conference in Melbourne this weekend has named the federal social services minister, Kevin Andrews, as its 2014 "Natural Family Man of the Year".
^"World Congress of Families News"(PDF). March–April 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 4, 2014. The Hon. Kevin Andrews MP, Australian Minister for Social Services and International Ambassador for WCF
^Gordon, Josh; Aston, Heath (15 July 2014). "State Attorney-General Robert Clark to address hardline pro-life event". The Age. The conference, which will take place late next month, will be opened and closed by federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, who, according to the flyer for the event, is an international ambassador for the congress.
Kalm, Sara; Meeuwisse, Anna (2020). "For love and for life: emotional dynamics at the World Congress of Families". Global Discourse. 10 (2): 303–320. doi:10.1332/204378920X15784019972237. S2CID216297343.
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