The best interests of the child are best served within marriage, a leading Vatican official has told a top UN 
committee.
Speaking on Monday to the 17th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on children’s rights, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s U.N. representative in Geneva, said that the family should receive State protection as “ the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, and particularly children”.
Archbishop Tomasi referred to the UN’s Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which says that the best interests of the child “shall be a primary consideration”.
He added that “[i]n line with the CRC that recognises the family as essential, the Holy See believes that the best interests of the child are primarily served in the context of the traditional family.”
He congratulated all those engaged in the preparation of the draft Optional Protocol to the CRC, which he said provided “a word of hope and encouragement to those children and young people whose innocence and human dignity have been wounded by the cruelty that can be present in the world of adults”.
The new protocol is designed to establish a procedure under which child victims of child trafficking, pornography, or prostitution can communicate that their rights have been violated.
He added: “If all States, UN agencies, civil society and faith-based institutions work together in a more effective partnership, they will be able to ensure love, care and assistance to those affected by violence and abuse.
“Moreover, they will foster a world where these children can pursue their dreams and aspirations of a future free of violence.”
Quoting the older Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Archbishop Tomasi recalled that the UN proclaimed: “The child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity.”
This statement continued to be of great importance now, and pointed to the responsibility of the international community to pursue the work of “promoting the dignity and wellbeing of all children and adolescents everywhere” he said.