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Dear Friends and Partners, &nbsp; In Geneva, on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council, the governments of Italy, Chile, Cameroon, and the Holy See presented a landmark joint declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy — the first formal step toward a binding treaty to abolish a practice that commodifies women and children. Our report, Italy and Chile Build an International Coalition for a Ban on Surrogacy, examines this open and growing coalition and what it signals for the future of international human rights law. &nbsp; For the first time in years, an Organization of American States assembly closed without any reference to “sexual and reproductive health and rights” or “gender-based violence.” In Panama Declaration Without References to Abortion for the First Time in Years, we explain how states removed this language during negotiations rather than after adoption — a precedent worth replaying at the UN and the EU. &nbsp; The UN Human Rights Council’s 62nd session largely kept its ideological course, yet a historic report on violence against mothers directly cited Ordo Iuris’s position. Our commentary, Observations from the UN Human Rights Council’s 62nd Session, reviews the debates on abortion, gender, migration, and free speech, and shows that patient, substantive argumentation can break through even entrenched patterns. &nbsp; Ordo Iuris has joined, as amicus curiae, a precedent-setting case before the European Court of Human Rights, defending states’ right to expel dangerous foreign nationals. In The Ordo Iuris Institute Intervenes in a Precedent-Setting Case on the Deportation of a Jihadist to Tunisia, we set out why the Court’s rigorous case law leaves states struggling to protect their citizens from terrorism. &nbsp; Please feel free to share and/or republish on your platforms.&nbsp;Olivier BaultFoundation Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture Address: ul. Zielna 39, 00-108 Warszawahttps://ordoiuris.pl/en/press-newsdesk/italy-and-chile-build-an-international-coalition-for-a-ban-on-surrogacy/ &nbsp;

ORDO IURIS: International Momentum Builds Against Surrogacy

Saving America by Saving the Family James Moseley, Ph.D. Director of International Partnerships, Liberty University Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years. Heritage Foundation Special Report No. 323, January 8, 2026. A civilization cannot remain healthier than the families from which it is formed. When marriage weakens, children lose stability, communities lose cohesion, economies lose future workers, and governments inherit responsibilities they cannot competently discharge. Saving America by Saving the Family addresses this not as one policy problem among many, but as the crisis beneath many of the others. Its title is intentionally dramatic, and the evidence assembled by its six authors substantially justifies the drama. The report begins where Aristotle began: not with the palace or marketplace, but with the household—the oikos. It is from oikos that we derive oikonomia, the management of the household, and ultimately our word economy. The authors state their premise plainly: “The family is the foundation of civilization” (p. 2). Marriage is the household's cornerstone because it unites the man and woman who create a child in a durable covenant of obligation to one another and to the life they bring into the world. The home is therefore the first school of cooperation, stewardship, sacrifice, responsibility, and self-government. When it performs these functions well, it limits the need for government. When it fails, no government program can fully take its place. The authors’ diagnosis is sobering. Marriage rates have fallen, first marriage has been delayed, cohabitation has increased, and approximately 40 percent of American births now occur outside marriage. One-quarter of American children live with a single parent. Fertility has fallen far below the level required for population replacement, raising the prospect that deaths will soon exceed births. The consequences reach far beyond household sentiment: childhood poverty and instability, weaker educational outcomes, loneliness, declining civic participation, labor shortages, and mounting pressure upon Social Security and Medicare. Unlike many policy manifestos, the report grounds its philosophical claims in an unusually broad body of demographic, economic, sociological, and historical research. The report attributes this dissolution to mutually reinforcing cultural and governmental forces. The sexual revolution separated sex from marriage and marriage from procreation. No-fault divorce separated marital choice from enduring responsibility. Pornography, dating apps, drugs, and increasingly artificial forms of reproduction have further commodified sex, intimacy, and even children. At the same time, welfare programs penalized marriage; credential inflation postponed adulthood; housing and childcare became less affordable; and economic and regulatory policies made it harder to sustain a household on one income. The report is especially persuasive when it refuses to reduce the crisis either to economics or morality alone. Families require both cultural conviction and practical means. Its recommendations follow three broad purposes: stop punishing family formation, restore the American dream, and actively support marriage and working families. The authors propose removing marriage penalties from welfare and taxation, strengthening work incentives, reforming housing and higher education, protecting children from technological harms, supporting home-based childcare, and requiring federal agencies to examine how regulations, grants, and enforcement actions affect marriage and family life. “No single program or agency,” they contend, can address family decline; the task requires coordinated attention across government (p. 98). The report culminates in three substantial fiscal proposals. A Family and Marriage tax credit would direct support toward married working parents during the demanding first four years of a child's life. A Home Childcare Equalization credit would correct the present preference for commercial childcare by recognizing the economic value of care provided at home. Newlywed Early Starters Trust (NEST) accounts would place at least $2,500 into an investment account for every qualifying newborn, with tax-advantaged withdrawals available to beneficiaries who marry between eighteen and thirty and remain married while the funds are released over three years. NEST is among the report's most imaginative ideas. It recognizes that young Americans should enter adulthood not merely as workers but as owners of productive capital. It may even contain a possibility larger than the authors develop. If some principal were preserved and each funded generation automatically helped endow the next, a temporary public investment might grow into permanent, inheritable family capital. NEST seeks to make marriage more affordable; preserved birthright capital might help make family flourishing economically durable. That possibility deserves consideration, but it extends rather than diminishes the authors' proposal. The report's reliance upon government is also its unavoidable tension. Federal policy can stop penalizing marriage, protect children, and remove obstacles to family formation. Executive orders can require family-impact statements. Tax credits can relieve pressure. But government cannot administer husbands and wives into fidelity, wisdom, forgiveness, or sacrificial love. The authors themselves ultimately acknowledge that “policy alone will not solve the family crisis” (p. 133). Religion, culture, art, education, and innumerable acts of personal responsibility must accomplish what administration cannot. Here, the biblical vision gives the report its deepest foundation. Children are not economic inputs needed to preserve entitlement programs. They are “a heritage from the Lord” (Ps. 127:3), the wealth of families and, in the deepest sense, the wealth of nations. Ephesians 5 presents marriage as reciprocal responsibility: wives submit to their husbands, while husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. Proverbs 31 portrays the excellent wife not as a passive dependent but as an investor, producer, merchant, philanthropist, teacher, and creative source of her household's flourishing. Husband and wife create eudaimonia together through love expressed as responsibility. This is not merely an American concern. Across much of the developed world, declining marriage, collapsing fertility, weakened religion, and demographic inversion threaten the institutions that assume a continuing succession of workers, parents, children, and citizens. The particular remedies will differ among nations, but the underlying question is universal: Can a society continue to flourish after it ceases to form the families through which both life and civilization are transmitted? At 137 pages before its extensive endnotes, the report is rather long, and its abundance of recommendations sometimes obscures its strongest arguments. Yet its breadth is also evidence of the seriousness with which the authors have approached the subject. Its diagnosis is substantially correct, its moral purpose is commendable, and many of its proposals deserve serious consideration. Most importantly, the report restores the proper order of the question—and returns modern politics to Aristotle’s oldest political insight: the household precedes the polis. The family does not exist to serve the economy or the state. The economy and the state exist to protect the human relationships within which people learn to love, accept responsibility, and flourish. America will not secure its next 250 years merely by preserving its institutions. It must preserve the institution that produces free and flourishing Americans.

A Review of Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years

Universal Statement on Education Freedom and Responsibility 7/16/2025 In 2025, a group of respected American educators and experts articulated the Phoenix Declaration, intended to delineate “the responsibility of America’s parents, educators, and policymakers to recommit ourselves to the central purposes of education.”&nbsp; We believe within the document are aspects that are universal to all free communities and sovereign nations. We have, therefore, adapted this declaration for a global audience. We recognize the diversity of educational systems around the world. Rightly, the structure of education ought to be a prerogative of national sovereignty and should rightfully reflect the values, priorities, traditions, and culture of the people of and their land. Nevertheless, educating is a fundamental human activity. The “central purpose of education is to transmit humanity’s accumulated knowledge and wisdom, as well as our nation’s particular culture and heritage, to the next generation.”&nbsp; Therefore, there must be elements of an authentic and constructive educational experience that are fundamental to all free peoples, the foundation of healthy communities, nations, and societies that promote human flourishing. We believe: Education is the cornerstone of individual opportunity, family flourishing, and national prosperity. Every child should have access to a high-quality, content-rich education that fosters the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful, so that they may achieve their full, God-given potential. Schools must work alongside parents to prepare children for the responsibilities of adulthood, including their familial and civic responsibilities, by cultivating excellence in mind and heart. Schools should equip students with the knowledge, character, and skills necessary to succeed in life as individuals and to fulfill their obligations as members of their families, local communities, and country. In order to empower families, advance educational excellence, transmit culture, tradition, and foundational values, we believe the following principles should guide families, schools, policymakers, and responsible officials: Parental Roles and Responsibilities. Parents are the primary educators of their children. Policies should respect the right and high duty of parents to raise their children and make decisions about their children's education. Transparency and Accountability. Schools, as secondary educators, should work with parents, not attempt to serve as replacements for them. Schools have a responsibility to be transparent with parents about what their children are being taught and how their children are performing. Schools must never have misguided policies that hide information from parents about their children’s mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. The highest form of accountability is when schools are answerable directly to well-informed parents. Truth and Goodness. Education must be grounded in truth. Students should learn that there is objective truth and that it is knowable. Science courses must be grounded in reality, not ideological fads. Students should learn that good and evil exist, and that human beings have the capacity and duty to choose good. Cultural Transmission. A central purpose of education is to transmit humanity’s accumulated knowledge and wisdom, as well as particular culture and heritage, to the next generation. A civilization survives only if it intentionally transmits its history, traditions, and values—including its yet unrealized aspirations—to the next generation. True progress comes only by building on what has been learned and achieved in the past. Students should therefore learn about founding principles and roots in the broader civilizational traditions. Students should study the best that has been thought and said, engaging in the great conversation among the competing viewpoints that comprise our intellectual heritage, so that they freely make the best views their own. Character Formation. Education must prepare children for the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood. That endeavor entails much more than merely preparing students for a career. A proper education is focused on the full formation of a child, particularly the child’s character. Education should cultivate the virtues and discipline necessary for self-governance. Students must be held accountable for their behavior, both to learn that their choices have consequences and to maintain the order necessary for learning to proceed. Academic Excellence. Schools should foster academic excellence. Schools should prioritize a rigorous and content-rich curriculum rooted in foundational subjects such as math, literature, science, history, civics, and the arts. Emphasis should be placed on core knowledge and tried-and-true pedagogy rather than fads or experimental teaching methods. Students should be challenged and rewarded for hard work and accomplishment. Schools should help students achieve their full potential, going as far and as fast as their talents will take them. Citizenship. Flourishing societies are predicated on an informed and virtuous citizenry. Information without moral formation is insufficient. Parents, schools, and religious and civic institutions must cultivate in children the personal and civic virtues necessary for righteous communities and nations. Schools should teach students the civic virtues and civic knowledge necessary for self-government including the value of civil disagreement. Schools should also foster a healthy sense of patriotism and cultivate gratitude for and attachment to their country and all who serve its central institutions and the ideas they contain about liberty, justice, the rule of law, government, rights, and the equal dignity of all human beings. Students should learn the whole truth—merits and failings—without obscuring the good.

Universal Statement on Education Freedom and Responsibility

Today, July 15, &nbsp;Belgian police blocked MEP, Sebastian Tynkkynen, a sitting Member of the European Parliament from entering the European Parliament and was physically detained in his office. His offense: he was attempting the delivery of over half a million European citizens’ signatures for the @SaveEuropeAct initiative.&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.save-europe-act.com/" data-mce-href="https://www.save-europe-act.com/">https://www.save-europe-act.com/</a>&nbsp; We, the Peoples of Europe, Motivated by a deep love and sense of responsibility for our nations, descendants and shared civilization, turn to the European Commission. Recognizing that the native peoples of Europe, comprising the ethnic, cultural and linguistic communities of the Member States, possess an inalienable right to preserve their collective identity, heritage and way of life, as rooted in the principles of national sovereignty and self-determination;II.Recitals 1. Acknowledging that Article 4(2) of the Treaty on European Union affirms respect for the national identities of the Member States, inherent in their fundamental political and constitutional structures, including regional and local self-government;2. Acknowledging further that Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union requires the Union to respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, which must include the protection of the historic cultures and traditions of Europe's nations against erosion through demographic replacement;3. Attesting how replacement migration, both legal and illegal, over recent decades has violated that right by causing significant damage to the social cohesion, public services, security, and ethnic and cultural continuity of the European nations, leading to parallel societies, increased crime and the marginalization of native populations in their ancestral homelands.4. Underlining the urgency of the matter by acknowledging the imminent reality that the native peoples of Europe risk becoming minority populations in their own homelands if radical changes to the asylum and migration system are not made;5. Determining that migration does not solve the ageing population crisis, but instead places further strain on European welfare systems and worsens the fundamental problem of low birthrates amongst the native population;6. Declaring that a sovereign Europe must prioritize the well-being, security and demographic continuity of its own peoples above policies that effectively replace and harm the native populations; III.Our Demands We therefore demand that the European Commission exercise its right of initiative under the Treaties to propose and advance the following legislative and policy measures without delay:Article 1 Declare a formal moratorium on new non-Western/non-European immigration channels, including the suspension of asylum processing for economic migrants and applicants from safe countries of origin, the halting of new study and family reunification visas for non-Europeans, and the strict limitation of legal migration channels until social cohesion and cultural continuity in the Member States are restored. Article 2 Establish a fundamental reform of the existing EU migration and asylum systems during the time of this moratorium, including a total reform of the current migration framework focusing on external border protection, physical and technological barriers at the frontiers, rapid screening, and immediate return mechanisms. Article 3 Ensure the systematic and accelerated return (remigration) of illegally staying migrants, rejected asylum seekers, and persons who have committed criminal offences or pose a threat to public order, with full mutual recognition of return decisions across the Union and enhanced cooperation with third countries for readmission. Article 4 Establish a harmonized EU-wide framework for broader remigration, including voluntary and incentivized remigration measures for non-European migrants who are unintegrated or constitute a serious cultural or financial burden to Member States, in order to reduce enforcement costs and support the restoration of demographic balance. Article 5 Remove social welfare incentives and benefits that function as pull factors for migration, including restrictions, in accordance with Union law, on access by non-citizens and recent migrants to selected welfare benefits and support systems, so as to reduce incentives for further migration, lessen the burden on European taxpayers, and encourage remigration. IV.Declaration We further declare that these measures are essential to uphold the rule of law, democratic legitimacy, and the long-term survival of European civilization as a community of distinct peoples with shared yet sovereign identities.Important Note This European Citizens' Initiative cannot contain every measure that would be necessary to secure the future of Europe and its peoples.The ECI procedure is formally limited in scope. For that reason, the legal text of this initiative must be confined to a narrower set of demands, even though further measures would clearly be needed. These include, among others:family policy and demographic renewal cultural continuity and identity the constitutional self-preservation of the Member States broader civilizational and historical questions concerning Europe's future Their absence from the legal text of the initiative does not mean that they are secondary. It means only that the instrument of a European Citizens' Initiative does not allow every necessary question to be included within one formal submission. Rome MMXXVI

Save Europe Act

Friends to Liberty Statement on Family and Marriage 7/10/2026 Over recent years, a number of recurring themes have emerged across the global community. Based on that experience, and dialogue among likeminded leaders who share principles and a passion for enabling change that leads to more free, secure, and prosperous sovereign nations, we have identified common challenges and responses with the intent to help inspire, encourage collaboration, further networking, and promoting initiatives. We as the Friends To Liberty work to empower and enable those committed to change. No issue demands more attention, commitment, and fearless action than the defense of family and marriage. The family is the foundation of civilization, and marriage—the committed union of one man and one woman—is its cornerstone. We commend the following acts as essential to accelerating the rising global consensus that nurturing strong families is fundamental to the future of human flourishing—and ought to be top priority for all of us. The defense of family and marriage demands policies and norms that encourage marriage, work, and large and growing families. This demands: Insisting governments stop punishing and hindering couples who seek to marry and have children. Authorities must also be more than “neutral.” Family formation performs crucial role in developing communities with strong culture, faith, demographic health, and national purpose and ought to be protected, preserved, empowered in policy and law. Reject gender identity and other radical theories that harm children, undermine biological truth, and threaten the natural family. Support the Geneva Consensus Declaration (https://c-fam.org/wp- content/uploads/geneva-consensus-declaration-english.pdf) and the right of every sovereign nation to decide for itself how to achieve “the highest attainable standards of health for women; to promote women’s essential contribution to health, and strength of the family and of a successful and flourishing society; and to express the essential priority of protecting the right to life.” Promote work. Work ennobles humans, helps give their lives meaning, and allows parents to provide for their children. We should strive for a society that grows prosperity, embracing a culture of marriage and work, with policies that should help parents struggling to provide for their children without the government usurping their role as providers. Respect and empower parental rights from issues concerning health and education to matters of faith, values, and belief. Honor motherhood as work and stop penalizing mothers who choose it. Where a mother steps back from the workforce to raise her children, both governments and civil society have a responsibilty to support rather than criticize or punish that choice — treating time devoted to raising the next generation as socially valuable labor in its own right. Support motherhood as an appreciated development path for women — one held in no less esteem than a professional career. Promote popular culture that embraces, ennobles, and empowers a culture of family, marriage, and work including an appreciation of motherhood, and eliminate stigmatizing mothers who choose to leave the workforce to raise their children. The social prestige of motherhood must be restored. At the same time, we should acknowledge the importance of fathers not just as providers but their role in childrearing and instilling values and virtue such as moral guidance, integrity, and patriotism.

Standing-up In Defense of Family and Marriage

On 5 July 2025, Zagreb witnessed one of the most remarkable public demonstrations of faith and national identity in modern European history. More than 500,000 people gathered at the Zagreb Hippodrome for what has been described as the largest paid concert ever held, with attendees travelling from across Croatia and the Croatian diaspora throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and South America. What unfolded was far more than a concert. It became a powerful public affirmation of Christianity, the family, national heritage, and the enduring moral foundations that have shaped Croatian society for centuries. In an era often characterised by secularisation and demographic decline, the event demonstrated that the Christian faith remains a living and unifying force for hundreds of thousands of Europeans.<img id="oojusep5r5mr10w8w7" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/cWoLRImJCg8kL6ePxq9DNo59YICdc05Hpk46xg0VLHVuJLMvs0TnpWN9p5gbUA5Z.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="null" data-positiony="null" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/cWoLRImJCg8kL6ePxq9DNo59YICdc05Hpk46xg0VLHVuJLMvs0TnpWN9p5gbUA5Z.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" style="border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(62,172,255,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-transform: translateX(0) translateY(0) rotate(0) skewX(0) skewY(0) scaleX(1) scaleY(1); --tw-border-opacity: 1; --tw-filter: ; --tw-backdrop-filter: ; --tw-bg-opacity: 1; background-color: rgb(243, 244, 246); width: 640px; aspect-ratio: 16 / 9; object-position: center center;">The significance of the gathering extends well beyond Croatia. Across the Western world, societies are confronting declining&nbsp;birth rates, weakening family formation, growing social fragmentation, and a loss of confidence in the cultural inheritance that gave rise to ordered liberty and democratic self-government. The extraordinary response in Zagreb suggests that many Europeans are not seeking to abandon their civilizational foundations, but to rediscover them. Faith, family, and national identity continue to provide meaning, social cohesion, and hope for future generations. They remain indispensable pillars of a confident and flourishing Western civilization.&nbsp;Friends to Liberty believes that the renewal of the West will not be achieved through economic growth or military strength alone. Lasting renewal begins with strong families, vibrant churches, responsible citizenship, and confidence in the Christian moral tradition that has shaped the institutions of freedom across Europe and North America. Events such as the Catholic Christian concert in Zagreb remind us that the future of Western civilization will ultimately depend upon whether we take initiative in our communities to preserve and strengthen the values which have sustained it for generations.

Friends to Liberty

News

ORDO IURIS: International Momentum Builds Against Surrogacy

A Review of Saving America by Saving the Family: A Founda...

Universal Statement on Education Freedom and Responsibility

Save Europe Act

Standing-up In Defense of Family and Marriage

A Historic Gathering: Faith and Identity Unite in Zagreb