The Family: The Foundation of Human Rights

Abstract

This article proposes that strong, healthy families provide the most secure foundation for the enjoyment and flourishing of human rights, and that such families are the most reliable source of security for human rights. Families generally do more to protect the lives, rights, well-being, and aspirations of individuals than governments and governmental agencies and programs. Human rights are more likely to flourish in and be enjoyed by members of communities and nations that have strong, healthy families. Families have profound influences upon juvenile delinquency in many ways. While there is "considerable debate about the specific 'meaning of the association,' and there are multiple causal influences, there is a clear association between family breakup and delinquency."