The World Congress of Families (WCF) is a United States coalition that promotes Christian right values internationally.[2] It opposes divorce, birth control, same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, while supporting a society built on "the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage".[3][4][5][6] WCF comprises organizations in several countries, and most of its member partners are strongly active campaigners against abortion rights and same-sex marriage.[7] WCF was formed in 1997 and is active worldwide, regularly organizing conventions.[8] Its opposition to gay marriage and abortion has attracted criticism.[9]
In 2014, following its involvement with the 2013 Russian LGBT propaganda law, the Southern Poverty Law Center added WCF to the list of organizations it considers as anti-LGBT groups.[10][11][12][13] WCF has also been influential in Africa. A 2015 report by Human Rights Campaign pointed to WCF's influence on anti-LGBT laws in Nigeria and Uganda,[14] while the director of the NGO Rightify Ghana noted in 2021 that, after the WCF conference in Ghana's capital city of Accra in late 2019, "there was a rush to push legislation" against LGBT in Ghana.[15] The organization has received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.[16][17][18]
^Buss, Doris; Herman, Didi (2003). Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN9781452906447. As quoted in "About World Congress of Families 9". World Congress of Families. Archived from the original on 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2014-08-31. Feminist law professors Doris Buss and Didi Herman wrote, "In terms of international activism, it is through deployment of natural family discourse that the [Christian Right] has had the most success in forging global alliances with other religious movements."
^*"American Conservatives Organize Social-Issues Conference in Poland". Fox News/Associated Press. 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014. The chief organizer is a Rockford, Illinois-based conservative think tank, the Howard Center. Co-sponsors include more than 20 other U.S. groups allied in opposition to abortion, gay marriage and other policies they blame for weakening traditional families in Western Europe. See also DAVID CRARY (25 March 2014). "US Conservatives Suspend Plans for Moscow Meeting". Associated Press. A U.S.-based conservative group that supports Russia's efforts to curtail gay rights and abortion is suspending its plans for an international conference in Moscow
^Roonemaa, Holger; Laine, Martin; Weiss, Michael (24 March 2022). "Exclusive: Russia Backs Europe's Far Right". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 24 March 2022. The WCF is sponsored by Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, yet another U.S.-sanctioned Russian oligarch.