The Turkish Ministry Responsible for Family, Women, Children and Disabled, the World Family Organization and the General Directorate of Family and Social Researches in partnership with UN ECOSOC Office for Support and Coordination, the UN NGO Branch and the UN NGO IRENE, have the honour to invite you for the World Family Summit +5, to be held from 4 to 7 December 2009, in the beautiful city Istanbul – the 2010 European Capital of Culture.

Since the year of 2004, when the first World Family Summit was accomplished in Sanya – China, this annual event continues to be the biggest partnership towards making the present and the future world with more peace, security, justice, tolerance, solidarity, prosperity and integrated by mobilizing and promoting the basic cell of society – the Family – and a legacy to the future generations, through the engagement of all sectors of society in a “Learning – Dialogue – Action” process.

We also are proud to announce that, in this event, we will celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the World Family Summit, under the theme “Families in Balance – Achieving Gender Equality and Women Empowerment”.

¬The World Family Summit +5 encompassing the UN ECOSOC 2010 main theme, the MDG 3, will aim at reviewing the current global and national trends and challenges and their impact on Gender Equality, highlighting the roles, rights, responsibilities and obligations of women and men and their capacity for reducing poverty focusing on Family Policies for empowering the women in all cultures.

The World Family Summit +5 will provide a new opportunity for discussion and reflection on how countries, governments, parliamentarians, judicial systems, private sector and civil society are approaching the issue and will adopt the Istanbul Declaration on the MDG 3 + Approach, which will be submitted to UN as the first proposal for the coming decade on Gender Equality and Empowerment of the Women taking into account the Family perspective.

In view of the above, the World Family Organization, the Government of Turkey and the Turkish Families are pleased to welcome you in the World Family Summit +5, hoping that your participation will add special value to the outcomes of the Summit.