New York / Media & Communication Dept./ November 19

The Third Committee on (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the resolution for the "Preparatory procedures for marking the 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family" to implement the objectives of the International Year of the Family, in which the State of Qatar facilitated negotiations, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China to the UN.
The Group of 77 and China expressed particular appreciation to the delegation of the State of Qatar, which facilitated over the past years the consultations on the resolution. Qatar began to introduce the resolution in 2004, after having hosted the Doha International Conference on the Family that year and facilitated the negotiations on the resolution since 2005.
The Group of 77 and China expressed their thanks and appreciation to the Third Secretary of the Permanent Delegation of the State of Qatar to the UN, Sheikha Al Maha bint Mubarak Al-Thani, for facilitating the negotiations on the draft resolution on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, which encouraged the Member States to begin preparations for the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2024.
The Third Committee stressed in its resolution that preparations for the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2024 should provide an opportunity to focus on such major trends as technological change, urbanization, migration, demographic change, and climate change, and their impact on the family's functioning and well-being.
It called upon Member States and United Nations entities, within their respective mandates, and other relevant stakeholders, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the following stages to provide support to family members, including support to working parents, providing full and productive employment and decent work, effective, inclusive, flexible and gender-sensitive social protection systems and public services, The extension of child and family benefits, paid parental leave and sick leave, improving the flexibility of working arrangements and investing in education in children's upbringing.
The Third Committee's resolution also called upon Member States and relevant stakeholders to act in preparation for the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, in the area of technological changes and their impact on families, to bridge digital gaps, Including the gap between developed and developing countries, as well as the digital gender divide to allow for equal access to information, knowledge and communication based on knowledge of risks, through concrete measures to promote universal access to equal opportunities for digital training and capacity-building by achieving equal access to information and communications technologies, mobile devices and the internet, to enhance their empowerment and familiarity with digital technology and to improve access to the internet, higher-speed internet and family digital devices, especially families in vulnerable situations, investing in digital literacy skills for all family members, investing in education on children's upbringing, including through the use of technology, as a valuable preventive strategy against cyberbullying and violence against children in digital contexts and to reduce child neglect and support children's healthy development family-oriented policies, within the framework of child-centered policies and as a component of broader family-oriented policies and programs.
The resolution also called on relevant stakeholders, including Member States, to promote work-family balance in the digital world, give workers with family responsibilities flexibility in work schedules to enable them to meet work and family needs, and invest in supporting and educating on reliable technology.