This is not surprising against the background of the economic, cultural and political changes, but rather a normal part of the continuous change of society in general. Today families comprise married and unmarried parents who raise their children together or alone including stepparents, adoptive parents and foster-parents. They all have the sa m e right to protection and assistance even if they do not succeed in living together as a family. The expression 'diverse families’ encompasses, for example, single-parent families; families headed by women; intergenerational families including, among others, grandparents; families headed by children, such as orphans or street children; families comprising lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons; extended families; self-created and self-defined families; families without children; families of divorced persons; polygamous families; and non-tradi-tional families resulting from interreligious, intercommunity or inter-caste marriages. For example, the lACtHR has noted that.