Buenos Aires | Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno set out natural rights as the moral compass of Argentine foreign policy in a programmatic address delivered at the San Martín Palace on July 24, before an audience of members of the Executive and Legislative branches, civil society leaders, international guests, and young leaders from 15 countries.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs was the keynote speaker at the Trilogue “Protecting the Future: Natural Rights at the Center of the International Agenda,” convened by the international platform Political Network for Values (PNfV), which also brought together The Heritage Foundation, Institute for Women’s Health, and Global Center for Human Rights.

Quirno stated that foreign policy is “never neutral” and that every vote, negotiation, or alliance expresses a hierarchy of values. He affirmed that Argentine diplomacy is once again speaking from its own identity, “rooted in the Western tradition and in our Judeo-Christian origins,” a “moral compass” that “promotes the protection of life from conception, recognizes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society, and protects religious freedom and freedom of conscience.” He added that this agenda also values women’s dignity and their decisive role in social life, defends the right to property, and upholds the sovereignty of States and the legal equality of all persons.

He stated that President Javier Milei placed these principles at the center of the State’s priorities, in line with the Constitution and with the mandate he received: “the rights that come with the person order our domestic policy and project our voice in the world.” He affirmed that these principles are also the foundation of the government’s economic agenda, since a truly free economy does not only generate wealth, but strengthens people’s autonomy, consolidates families, and expands the spaces of freedom.

Truths capable of guiding the future

The Foreign Minister argued that international bodies lose authority when their bureaucracies attempt to turn “ideological preferences into universal obligations,” and that the crisis facing the West began when societies stopped recognizing the permanent foundations of their freedom.

He explained that the Milei administration decided not to resign itself to that drift and took an active stance: “we believe that the strength of a democracy depends on the values on which it chooses to build its institutions, and that international action achieves greatness when it brings that truth to bear among nations. Argentina has chosen to take that place.”

For Quirno, defending natural rights is not about looking to the past, but about remembering that there are truths capable of guiding the future. It is not about invoking a philosophical abstraction, but about recognizing that the truth about the human person, and the rights that flow from it, are not established by political power: they precede it. For that reason, political power cannot alter them either; they are the limit that no authority may cross, and politics has the responsibility to protect them.

A new paradigm

Also taking part in the trilogue was Agustín Caulo, Secretary of Worship and Civilization, who argued that affirming natural rights in multilateral discussions opens up a new paradigm, distinct from the tendency to present human rights as an arbitrary catalog of preferences dependent on ideological constructs or passing consensus.

“Human rights are only universal if there is an objective foundation that precedes them. The human person must never be a means at the service of power, but always the ultimate end of all political action,” he said.

Santiago Santurio, national deputy and Argentina’s representative on the PNfV Advisory Board, stated that a growing number of political leaders are convinced that “natural rights are the point of convergence and the most solid foundation for building an international agenda that is authentically oriented toward serving the human person and the common good.”

International voices

The trilogue also featured speakers from three organizations that are leading actors in the reshaping of the international landscape.

Valerie Huber, president of the Institute for Women’s Health and one of the leading architects of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, presented the growth and impact of that international coalition, which currently counts 41 nations among its members. The Geneva Consensus helps member countries protect their sovereignty and maintain a common position in international forums on women’s health, the protection of life, and the strengthening of the family. For Huber, the generational momentum sweeping across Ibero-America — with Argentina playing a leading role — will help consolidate this “civilizational alliance.”

The Global Center for Human Rights is an organization that works in defense of natural rights within multilateral bodies such as the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS). María Quiroga, its director of research, presented a map of extraordinary funding flowing into the Inter-American Human Rights System and of the external pressures favoring agendas that call into question its impartiality and independence.

The Heritage Foundation has been a key actor in developing public policy to protect minors from gender ideology in schools, hormone therapies, and “sex change” procedures, as well as in restricting men’s participation in women’s sports competitions. Laura Bryant Hanford, the think tank’s senior analyst, presented some of the strategies implemented in the United States and a legislative proposal already underway in Ohio and Virginia.

Turning a shared vision into the capacity for action

The trilogue brought together just over 100 members of Argentina’s Legislative and Executive branches, at the national, provincial, and municipal levels; leaders of civil society organizations from across the country; and international specialists. Young leaders from 15 countries also took part: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

“This gathering,” Quirno said in his address, “brings together those who write laws, carry out policies, and build institutions. That convergence can turn shared convictions into an agenda that guides public life; it can turn a shared vision into the capacity for action. You can count on this Foreign Ministry, and on my personal commitment, to project a diplomacy at the service of life, freedom, property, and human dignity.”

The trilogue was an initiative of the international platform Political Network for Values (PNfV), in partnership with Fundación Faro, Argéntea, Instituto Mises Cono Sur, Global Center for Human Rights, and Fundación Free.

According to Lola Velarde, PNfV’s executive director, the event’s central theme emerged from the recognition that we are living through a historical moment similar to the great transformations of the 16th century, when the School of Salamanca served as a guiding light for Iberian rulers by recognizing and affirming, in an equally complex moment, natural rights as the foundation of the social order.

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Read Foreign Minister Quirno’s full address here.

In the opening photo, from left to right: María Quiroga, director of research at the Global Center for Human Rights; Valerie Huber, president of the Institute for Women’s Health; Agustín Caulo, Secretary of Worship and Civilization; Pablo Quirno, Foreign Minister of Argentina; Lola Velarde, PNfV executive director; Laura Bryant Hanford, senior analyst at The Heritage Foundation; Jorge Ferro, PNfV director in Argentina; and Santiago Santurio, national deputy and Argentina’s representative on the PNfV Advisory Council.