A Universal Human Rights Mechanism for the Protection or Revision of the Institution of Family in an Era of Economic Change

The paper examines the activities of the Human Rights Committee (HRC), created on the basis of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in relation to the protection of family, which, according to the ICCPR, is understood as a “natural and fundamental group unit of society.” The comprehensive analysis of the relevant provisions of general comments and concluding observations on the States parties’ reports to the ICCPR adopted by the HRC, and the comparative analysis of the activities of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) by the States parties, including the provision on the protection of family, reveals that the HRC deviates from the relevant ICCPR guidelines on family and goes beyond its competence. It is expressed in the attempt of the HRC to equate same-sex couples with the international legal status of the family and impose such a distorted understanding on those countries that adhere to traditional values, which include family based on marriage between a man and a woman, one of the main goals of which is the reproduction of generations. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.