Douglas A. Sylva, Ph.D.

Senior Fellow

dsylva@dminj.com

     Douglas Sylva is a Senior Fellow at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). As a Senior Fellow, Sylva researches topics related to international social policy and law, and his writings on these subjects are published widely. In addition, he counsels members of the United Nations community and governments on matters relating to international organizations, documents and law. He has addressed politicians and government officials including members of the European Parliament, the British House of Lords, the German Bundestag, and the US Congress.

     Sylva also serves as an advisor to the Vatican on international relations. As such, he was a member of the Vatican delegation to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2005-2007), and assisted the Vatican in negotiating the treaty that resulted from the Committee’s efforts. He has also served on Vatican delegations to various Organization of American States meetings, including the 19th Pan-American Children’s Congress in Mexico City and the 2005 Organization of American States General Assembly meeting.

     During 2001-2004, Sylva was Vice President of C-FAM, during which time he participated in all major UN social policy negotiations. He was particularly involved in the UN’s Child Summit and the negotiations that resulted in an international declaration against all forms of human cloning. As the author of C-FAM’s Friday Fax, his distinctive reports on the UN were read each week by over 70,000 people around the world.

     Sylva was also the Director of the International Organizations Research Group, where he wrote and edited comprehensive studies on international bodies and their agendas in relation to issues regarding life, family, religion and national sovereignty. His White Paper on the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was highly influential within the Bush administration, and helped to lead to that organization being de-funded by the US government. His White Paper on the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been widely seen as blueprint for reform of that agency.

     In 2004, Sylva was a member of the Organizing Committee for the Intercultural Dialogue on the Family, which culminated in The Doha International Conference for the Family in Doha, Qatar.

     Sylva is a widely published writer who served as a non-fiction book critic for the New York Times Sunday Book Review and the Washington Times. His writing has also appeared in publications such as National Review, National Review Online, Insight on the News, the National Catholic Register, the Weekly Standard, and the Daily Standard.

     Sylva earned a doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University in 2001. His doctoral thesis investigated the philosophical foundations of conflicts over values and morals, and how political communities attempt to resolve such conflicts. Sylva also taught political philosophy at Columbia.

     He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 1993, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He and his wife, Susan, are the parents of five children and reside in Summit, New Jersey.