The United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York will be the stage for the V Transatlantic Summit, which will bring together next week politicians and civic leaders committed to life, family and liberties.
The event, organized by Political Network for Values (PNfV), will be held on November 16 and 17 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
José Antonio Kast, president of PNfV, explains that participants will affirm the defense of life, family, religious freedom, freedom of expression and the freedom of parents to educate their children, whose protection is enshrined in the articles of the 1949 Declaration.
The Network’s guests are high-level government officials, legislators and political and civic leaders from more than 30 countries and from a wide range of cultures, all of them global or local actors in advancing the fundamental values agenda.
Lola Velarde, executive director of the Network, emphasizes that the UDHR explicitly recognizes the right to life (Article 3), the protection of the family, motherhood and childhood (Articles 16, 23 and 25); the right of parents to choose the education of their children (Article 26); and freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression (Articles 18 and 19).
“Celebrating these fundamental rights and affirming them at the UN is especially relevant because they are currently being undermined and even violated in the name of new so-called rights, which are neither part of the UDHR, nor universally recognized,” he warns.
Diverse voices, from the most varied cultures
The Summit’s speakers are a mosaic of cultures and a chorus of voices with different nuances, including: Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, Minister of Women’s Affairs of Nigeria; Ito Bisonó, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Dominican Republic; Erwin Ronquillo, Minister of Child Protection of Ecuador; and Rafael López Aliaga, Mayor of Lima. They will discuss the current status of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
To address the rights enshrined in the various articles of the UDHR, Raúl Latorre, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay; Kinga Gál and Margarita de la Pisa, Members of the European Parliament for Hungary and Spain, respectively; Germán Blanco, Senator of Colombia; the parliamentarians Lucy Akello from Uganda; Päivi Räsänen from Finland; and Kerri Seekins-Crowe from the United States; Stephen Bartulica from Croatia; Santiago Santurio from Argentina; Nikolás Ferreira from Brazil; Ashems Songwe from Malawi; Hafid El-Hachimi from Morocco, an official of the Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; and the Slovak Jan Figel, who worked as a special envoy of the European Union for religious freedom and beliefs, will intervene.
Other speakers include Eduardo Verastegui, producer of the film ‘Sound of Freedom’ and presidential pre-candidate in Mexico; Lila Rose, president of Live Action; Valerie Huber, promoter of the Geneva Consensus Statement and president of the Institute for Women’s Health; Sharon Slater, president of Family Watch International; Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation; Neydy Casillas, vice president for international affairs of the Global Center for Human Rights; Austin Ruse, president of C-Fam; Peter Torcsi, director of operations of the Center for Fundamental Rights; Angela Gandra, president of the Ives Gandra Institute and former national secretary of the Family in Brazil; and Bernardo Larrain, promoter of the Casablanca Declaration, among others.
Two analyses of the current situation from complementary perspectives will be presented by Ádám Kavecsánszki, President of the Foundation for a Civic Hungary, and Brett Schaefer, Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Additionally, Mariam Ibraheem from Sudan, sentenced to death for marrying a Christian, and Rodrigo Iván Cortés from Mexico, prosecuted for his convictions, will share their cases.
In Partnership
The Summit is made possible through the co-sponsorship of our partner organizations: The Heritage Foundation, Center for Fundamental Rights, Foundation for a Civic Hungary, Global Center for Human Rights, International Centre on Sexual Exploitation, Family Watch International, C-Fam, ADF International, The Institute for Women’s Health, International Organization for the Family, and Talenting Group. All of these entities work towards the respect of human dignity and the promotion of fundamental values in various areas.
The PNfV is an international network of politicians actively committed to the promotion and defense of life, family, and freedoms. The Transatlantic Summits are a cornerstone of the Network, bringing together politicians and civic leaders from Europe, America, and Africa to strengthen ties, share success stories, best practices, and build joint agendas. They are typically held every two years.
The inaugural Summit took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2014, followed by others at the European Parliament in Brussels in 2017, at the Colombian Capitol in Bogota in 2019, and at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest last year.
Refer to this link for the program of the V Summit in New York.
