In light of the world’s population reaching 8bn in late 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the International Day of Families, which is celebrated on May 15, as a milestone in human development, illustrated by the major developments in health and the gradual increase in human life expectancy.
The world population is projected to reach 9.8bn in 2050 and 11.2bn in 2100 raising concerns about the prospects of sustainable urbanisation and management of climate change.
During the 1980s, the UN began focusing attention on issues related to the family. After several international deliberations lasting more than a decade between the UN, Member States and regional blocs, on the study of the proclamation of an International Year of the Family and the discussion of other ways and means available to improve the family’s status and well-being, and to intensify international co-operation to advance social progress and development, it was agreed in 1993 that May 15 would be proclaimed International Day of Families, and that 1994 would be the International Year of the Family. The General Assembly had appointed a preparatory body for the International Year of the Family.
As part of the preparations for the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family, 2024, the 2023 in-person observance of the International Day of Families focuses on the megatrend of demographic change and its impact on families. The event is to share current knowledge on demographic trends, including ageing and intergenerational solidarity; facilitate the analysis of their impacts on family life and recommend responsive family-oriented policies to respond to the needs of families around the world.
Demographic trends are mostly shaped by fertility and mortality patterns. Declining fertility rates in some communities increase families’ ability to channel their monetary potential. Decreasing fertility also increases women’s labour participation. On the other hand, fertility declines results in smaller families which are less likely to cope with care and other household obligations. As such in time of unemployment or illness, families have fewer members to rely on. Moreover, low fertility rates may undermine labour forces and social structures triggering drastic responses with hard to predict consequences for issues raging from social security to gender equality.
Of the three principal determinants of demographic change fertility, life expectancy and net migration. At the global level, population decline is driven by low and falling fertility levels. In 2019, more than 40% of the world population lived in countries that were at or below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman; in 2021, this share climbed to 60%. Net immigration has circumvented population decline in some Western European countries, for example, but high net emigration has exacerbated population decline in some of their Eastern European neighbours.
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals on Sept 25, 2015, was an important event at the UN, where Member States agreed on a set of 17 goals aiming to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction, and usher in an era of development for all people, everywhere. Families and family-oriented policies and programmes that are vital for the achievement of many of these goals do not appear to have been translated on the ground, with ‘Oxfam’ estimating that more than a quarter of a billion people in 2022 still live in extreme poverty.
Family issues do not depend on knowing the rates of births, deaths, fertility, hunger levels and food availability. There is something of great importance in the view of education specialists about the care and upbringing of children within the family structure, as it is the persons’ first provider of the values and knowledge accompanying them from birth, and the first directive of ethics that regulates their life’s behaviours until death. Under parents’ care and upbringing, the primary characteristics of their identity and psychological and emotional stability are formed.
For its part, Qatar affirms the value and role of the family in any society, referring to Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stresses that the family is the building block of society, and has the right to be protected by society and the state.
Qatar prioritises the issue of the family due to its primary role in building a developed and innovative society that preserves its religious, moral, and human principles and values. Qatar is keen, during its participation in international forums, to warn that the family institution is subjected to unprecedented attacks and attempts to diminish and weaken its role in society through some anti-family ideologies. Additionally, the concept of the traditional family structure has historically been valued by almost all cultures, religious traditions, and social systems.
Since the issuance of Amiri Decision No 15 of 2009 on regulating the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, the Council has been keen to enhance the status of the family and its role in society by developing a national strategy for the family in the light of Qatar National Vision 2030 and to achieve its goals, develop strategies, policies, and programmes that contribute to the advancement the quality of life of the family and ensures their social security and stability.
In addition, the Supreme Council for Family Affairs is keen to work to achieve the goals stipulated in international conventions dealing with family affairs and to follow up on all efforts aimed at implementing international conventions concerned with family affairs, and the rights of children, women and persons with disabilities, draft agreements concluded in the field of family protection, and other items specified by the Amiri decision.
In Qatar, a special day for the family has been allocated on April 15 annually, on the sidelines of the International Family Conference organised by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in 2004 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family.
In this context, the Ministry of Social Development and Family seeks to enable creativity and innovation and provide opportunities for individuals to be part of positive change in family and society.
Celebrating family day in the country is one of the important events at the social work level. The country is full of institutions and centres specialised in all segments of society and the family, the most important of which are the Qatar Foundation Family Consulting Center (Wifaq), the Protection and Social Rehabilitation Centre (AMAN), and the Orphans Care Center (Dreama), the Center for Empowerment and Care of the Elderly (Ehsan), as well as the Doha International Family Institute. These institutions make an effort to reflect the country’s interest in these important segments of society.
