The family has historically been one of the most fundamental and irreplaceable institutions in society, and it continues to maintain this status today. It plays a vital role in fostering social cohesion and intergenerational solidarity. The family is the children's elementary school, providing the first environment where socialization takes place and playing a key role in carrying values into the future. It equips children with the necessary skills to establish a healthy relationship between the individual and society. Furthermore, the family institution offers both material and emotional support to its members, provides social protection, plays a critical role in identity formation, and serves as a source of resilience and stability during difficult times, offering a secure environment for its members. In other words, societies are built upon the foundation of the family.

The family, as the natural and fundamental unit of society, has been recognized in many international treaties and documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as having the right to be protected by society and the State. However, since the 1970s, the institution of the family has undergone significant changes and transformations. Declining marriage rates, increasing divorce rates, decreasing fertility rates, rising in the average age of marriage, and the growing number of single-parent families and individuals living alone have become serious issues that pose long-term threats to societies. As a result, many countries are now in search of policies aimed at strengthening the family institution.

Changes in the demographic structure, particularly the significant decline in fertility rates in many countries on a global scale, have reached alarming levels. While the proportion of young population in countries is decreasing, the proportion of the population consisting of older persons is increasing. Anti-natalist policies implemented globally, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries, are among the main factors that are effective in changing and transforming the demographic structure. Additionally, numerous factors such as changes in family and marriage institutions, education, development, urbanization, employment, individualization, and the push to erase biological distinctions further accelerate this demographic shift. This situation leads to increased problems in social and health services, income-expenditure imbalances in the social security system and problems in the labor market, putting pressure on families. Despite references to the importance of the family in the first international documents prepared by the United Nations, recent years have seen a decline in the emphasis on the family.

Many factors such as the increase in negative discourses targeting the value and importance of family, marriage and having children, the devaluation of solidarity and social support networks within the extended family, the increase in harmful trends that threaten the healthy development of children and youth, digital productions and content that threaten the family frequently appear in media and internet channels, and the promotion of a lifestyle dominated by individualization, consumerism and materialistic values pose a serious risk to the institution of family and marriage.

In this context, in order to overcome these challenges, to protect the family from all kinds of harmful tendencies, to raise healthy generations and to maintain a strong population structure in a stable manner, there is still a need to implement policies to strengthen the family institution in a way to penetrate all areas of social life. The institution of the family is indispensable for the general welfare and stability of both individuals and society, and the protection and strengthening of the family is a common responsibility.

The International Family Forum aims to bring together high-level officials, experts and other stakeholders to protect and strengthen the institution of family and marriage, and to preserve generations and a strong population structure. This forum aims to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing families and communities, and to provide a common platform to discuss ways to protect and strengthen the family institution and better support families in fulfilling their critical role in our societies. In addition, it aims to put forward a concrete initiative to establish a common position on the protection of the family institution and its values on international platforms. Accordingly, the aim is to publish a joint statement at the end of the event. In addition, it is considered that in the following stages, efforts may be made to bring this statement to the agenda as a draft resolution before multilateral international institutions, especially the UN.

Within the framework of the identified themes, it is envisaged to organize events such as high-level panels, open forums, roundtable meetings, and workshops/exhibitions. It is planned that ministers responsible for family and social services from various countries will convene through a roundtable meeting to exchange views on family-related issues. The symposium will be held with the participation of national and international experts, and panels will be organized under the titles: "Highly Profitable: The Cost of Global Challenges to Individuals, Families and Society," "Between Fiction and Reality: The Family in Culture, Art, and Media," "Being a Family in the Age of Screens," and "The Myth of Overpopulation: How the Global Agenda Contributed to Decline of Populations?