Heritage Day Debate

Cheryllyn Dudley MP - ACDP

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

In Parliament today African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley gave the following speech during a debate on Heritage Day:

Madam Speaker/Chairman

I celebrate Heritage Day, grateful for the privilege of being a South African and grateful for my Christian heritage. I also celebrate heritage day grateful for the privilege and honor of being a mother. My eldest son Marc is 28, my daughter Christy nearly 21, John-Paul is 18 and Matthew 8. My concerns about the heritage we are passing on to future generations however, are very real but then, my concern that there will not be a future generation is just as real, as fertility rates in the entire developed world are now well below replacement levels, and, if current declines in fertility rates in the developing world continue, the entire world will soon be below replacement level fertility. Contrary to widespread perceptions of over population, the world needs babies – and needs them now.

Until relatively recently, the concepts of “marriage,” “family” and even “children’s rights” were not commonly linked with “international law”, however, human rights issues have taken center stage at international conferences as the UN has assumed the role of world policymaker. As a result there have been curious new developments. International law has become clearly hostile to long-standing notions of marriage, the natural family and the rearing of children, presenting marriage, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood as cultural and economic “problems” that demand immediate “solutions.”

The international legal system is gaining considerable clout in establishing norms through conventions and customary law, and the impact on South African law is evident as these new norms are used to destroy innocent life and deconstruct longstanding concepts of marriage and family. Recent studies emphasize the critical role dual-parenting plays, and acknowledges it is “by far the most emotionally stable and economically secure arrangement for child rearing”, and that “nothing compares to a solid, stable marriage between their biological parents”. Reproduction is the only human act for which men and women indisputably require the other and sexual relations between a man and a woman are therefore unique, and form the basis of the legal, religious, historical and metaphysical notion that “marriage” joins two flesh in one. In South Africa however homosexual rights do not only have protection over and above the rights of other citizens through the constitution, legislation and now court judgments, but homosexual lifestyles are also promoted with taxpayers money.

Research confirms that natural family structures benefit nearly every aspect of a child’s well-being, including greater educational opportunities, better emotional and physical health, less substance abuse, lower incidences of early sexual activity for girls, less delinquency for boys and reduced poverty.

While scientific surveys (by Dr. David Popenoe & Dr. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead) found that cohabiting, unmarried women “are more likely than married women to suffer physical and sexual abuse”, and the consequences are even more serious for children, as “the most unsafe of all family environments for children is that in which the mother is living with someone other than the child’s biological father.”

Prior to the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, no legal system in the world granted autonomy rights to children, in fact the world limited “children's autonomy in the short run in order to maximize their development of actual autonomy in the long run” (Prof B Hafen). To “short-circuit this process by legally granting – rather than actually teaching – autonomous capacity to children ignores the realities of education and child development to the point of abandoning children to a mere illusion of real autonomy.” The most potentially harmful autonomy provisions contained in the Convention are the right to privacy and the right to free speech and association.

If we want our children and our children’s children to celebrate Heritage Day in years to come, we must refute and resist the lies that undermine the family, marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood. We must give birth to our babies, love them, enjoy them and protect them. They are a gift from God.

“Where are we going mommy?
People dressed in green,
If they hurt you mommy, just scream.
What’s happening mommy, I’m starting to cry,
Mommy come quickly, they’re making me die,
Killing me quickly, pulling me apart,
Everything in me, even my heart,
Bye mommy, good-bye
I love you, I do…
Why, mommy why…can’t you love me too? (anonymous)

Abortion kills babies!

NB. Further information on the above facts can be found in “International Law, Social Change and the Family, a presentation by Richard G. Wilkins, Professor of Law and Director of The World Family Policy Center Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

This paper is available and can be sent to interested persons by email.


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For further comment please call Cheryllyn Dudley MP at 082 8906520 or ACDP Media Liaison Liza Bloemetje at 082 4781037