Civil rights, the campaign to restore the concept of family to its broader and more contemporary meaning

ROMA – “Families are all different. Rights must all be equal”. The campaign starts today, online and in the streets of RomeFamily Portraits”, created by an informal network of civil society associations. The campaign gives back to the term “family” its broader contemporary meaning, referring to the concrete reality that people live: families are in fact many, different, fluid and elective. “Through social networks, posters and moving images we want to represent the plural relationships present in our society”, reads the document released by AIDSl’Italian Association of Women for Development, NGO founded in Rome in 1981, which aims to spread and promote women’s human rights, their freedom and dignity in developing countries.

The traditional nucleus prevails, but is progressively declining. According to Istat, there are approximately 26 million and 200 thousand families, with a notable variety in their composition, which is also clearly revealed by the data. Of the nuclear families, couples with children make up 50.3% and, although they are still the prevalent typology today, their incidence has reduced by almost 10 percentage points over the last twenty years. The number of childless couples has increased, now representing just under a third of the total households (32.4 percent) and the weight of single-parent households has grown, representing 17.3 percent of the total. Furthermore, over the last twenty years, the share of single-person families has increased and the percentage of large ones has decreased.

The many ways of being in the world. The main intent of the Campaign Family Portraits is therefore to underline the importance of the recognition of civil and social rights for all people, broadening the definition of family, since society is constantly changing and there is not one single ideal of family, but as many as ours ways of being in the world, in different forms of relationships, coexistence, mutual support, friendship and solidarity. “We have chosen to show this plurality – we read in the AIDOS document – ​​which also contains the most widespread model, which a fundamentalist and reactionary vision would like to impose as unique by calling it ‘traditional’. But in reality what all possible family and life forms have in common is the element of choice that each person makes for himself.”

The promoting associations. In addition to Aidos, they are: Certi Diritti, CGIL, Mario Mieli Homosexual Culture Club, Civiltà Laica, Famiglie Arcobaleno, Laiga, Objection rejected, Period Think Tank, Più di 194 voci, Pro-choice Italian contraception and abortion network, Lenford Network, Rete Umbra 2020, If not now when Turin, Union of atheists and rationalist agnostics – Uaar.