Ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child

by Patricia Arnold

[This Op-Ed appeared in the Sunday March 27, 2005 Santa Cruz Sentinel.]

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by every country in the world except the U.S. The convention was signed by the United States February 16, 1995, but has not been ratified. When Jesse Helms ran the Senate Rules Committee, he blocked the ratification of the treaty by the United States. His main argument was that many states in the U.S. executed children ( under 18) and that we could not abridge states rights. There were other issues like parental rights or youth volunteering for the military, but this was his main objection which has continued to this day.
Now that the United States has joined the rest of the civilized world in banning the execution of minors, the impediment to the U.S. Senate ratifying this important document has been put behind us.
The Convention is the principal children's treaty encompassing a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The Convention aims at protecting children from discrimination, neglect and abuse. It grants and provides for the implementation of rights for children both in times of peace and during armed conflict. It is the first legally binding international instrument which provided in a single test universally recognized norms and standards concerning the protection and promotion of the rights of the child. It is the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights instrument in the world. Such unprecedented wide participation clearly demonstrates a common political will to improve the situation of children.

(For the full text go to unasantacruz.org)

Under the Bush administration  two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child have been ratified. The First - the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography - was ratified by the United States on December 23, 2002. The Optional Protocol supplements the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by extending the obligations of the States parties to guarantee the protection of the child from the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Second - on the involvement of children in armed conflict - was proposed by the Administration and also ratified by the United States December 23, 2002. The objective of this Optional Protocol is to increase the protection of children from involvement in armed conflict by raising the age of possible recruitment of persons into the armed forces and their participation in hostilities. The Optional Protocol establishes an obligation upon States to take all feasible measures to prevent the direct participation in hostilities by individuals under the age of 18.
This latter protocol takes care of previous U.S. objections to the Treaty on the grounds that we allow persons under 18 to enlist in the military. There seems no reason now not to ratify the full Convention. This should be a slam dunk.
I recently returned from the N.Y.C. Convention of the UNA/USA where Robert Perala and I represented the Santa Cruz chapter. There was a strong feeling there that this treaty could now be ratified. There was also elation at the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Beijing Women= s Conference just held at the U.N. at the gains made by women. While poverty is still the major problem in the world, the world is more strongly supportive of women= s rights than ten years ago. When the Bush administration tried, at this meeting, to push the conservative agenda on abortion, attempted to add wording limiting women s right of choice, the international outcry was such that the U.S. backed down. This is a sort of negative victory, but it does show the weight of world opinion still matters in Washington.
The weight of world opinion is also partially responsible for the excellent decision by the Supreme Court to ban juvenile executions in all of the United States Justice Anthony Kennedy said that international opinion is overwhelmingly against executing juveniles. The Sentinel editorial on March 4th said it was a curious rational for overturning laws approved in 19 states, even though they agreed with the decision. I disagree with that isolationist point of view as we are all part of one now instantly connected world. A go-it-alone attitude is really not cool today. Lets hope that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women will join the Children's Convention as the next document in the hopper for ratification.