The United States of America refuses to join States
Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child so why would anyone
believe U.S. government officials' public emoting after the most recent domestic tragedy? I don’t.
Re-reporting, editing, commentary by
Carolyn Bennett
In today’s news reports, The United States remains one of
only three United Nations Member States (the others Somalia and South Sudan)
that have failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Public Interest and Human Rights Attorney Roy Morris said in a Press TV interview: The United States “as a matter of law still treats children
as property.…
There’s
no place to go: you can’t even go to a
federal court; the federal courts in the United States don’t want to deal with
this issue.
Morris poses a critical question: “If the United States does
not want to answer to the international community, how can it expect other countries of the world to answer to the international community?”
The United States, he says, “cannot hold the moral high
ground if it does not want to ratify treaties like the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child” [Note: the United States recently dug in on its refusal to
sign the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons].
I
|
was curious about how
often the text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child mentions “care.”
I
found 29 times. Here is some of the context of the Convention’s concern ─ and
the United States’ unconcern ─ with care.
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| Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1947 |
Preamble Paragraph 3
“Recalling that, in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the United Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special
care and assistance,
Preamble Paragraph 8
Bearing in mind that the need to extend particular care
to the child has been stated in the Geneva
Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924 and in the Declaration of
the Rights of the Child adopted by the General Assembly on 20 November 1959 and
recognized in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (in particular in articles 23 and 24), in the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (in particular in article 10) and in the
statutes and relevant instruments of specialized agencies and international
organizations concerned with the welfare of children,
Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, ‘the
child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special
safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before
as well as after birth,’ …
Have agreed as follows: …
Article 3
1. In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by
public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative
authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a
primary consideration.
2. States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection
and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into
account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other
individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take
all appropriate legislative and administrative measures.
3. States Parties shall ensure that the institutions,
services and facilities responsible for the care or protection
of children shall conform with the standards established by competent
authorities, particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and
suitability of their staff, as well as competent supervision.
Article 7
1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and
shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality
and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for
by his or her parents.
2. For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights
set forth in the present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate
assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their
child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of
institutions, facilities and services for the care of
children.
3. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to
ensure that children of working parents have the right to benefit from child-care
services and facilities for which they are eligible.
Article 19
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative,
administrative, social and educational measures to protect the
child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect
or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse,
while in the care of parent(s),
legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.
Article 20
1. A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her
family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain
in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance
provided by the State.
2. States Parties shall in accordance with their national
laws ensure
alternative care for such a child.
3. Such care could include, inter alia, foster placement,
kafalah of Islamic law, adoption or if necessary placement in suitable
institutions for the care of children. When considering solutions,
due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s
upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic
background.
Article 21
(b) Recognize that inter-country adoption may be considered
as an alternative
means of child’s care, if the child cannot be placed in a foster or
an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in the child’s
country of origin;
Article 23
3. Recognizing the special needs of a disabled child,
assistance extended in accordance with paragraph 2 of the present article shall
be provided free of charge, whenever possible, taking into account the
financial resources of the parents or others caring for the child, and shall be
designed to ensure that the disabled child has effective access to and receives
education,
training, health care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for
employment and recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the
child’s achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual
development, including his or her cultural and spiritual development
4. States Parties shall promote, in the spirit of
international cooperation, the exchange of appropriate information in the field
of preventive
health care and of medical, psychological and functional treatment
of disabled children, including dissemination of and access to information
concerning methods of rehabilitation, education and vocational services, with
the aim of enabling States Parties to improve their capabilities and skills and
to widen their experience in these areas. In this regard, particular account
shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.
Article 24
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for
the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall
strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.
2. States Parties shall pursue full implementation of this
right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures:
(a) To diminish infant and child
mortality;
(b) To ensure the provision of
necessary medical assistance and health care to all children
with emphasis on the development of primary health care;
(c) To combat disease and
malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health
care, through, inter alia, the application of readily available
technology and through the provision of
adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water, taking into consideration
the dangers and risks of environmental pollution;
(d) To ensure appropriate pre-natal
and post-natal health care for mothers;
(e) To ensure that all segments of
society, in particular parents and children, are informed, have access to education and are supported in the use
of basic knowledge of child health and nutrition,
the advantages of breastfeeding, hygiene and environmental sanitation and the
prevention of accidents;
(f) To develop preventive health care,
guidance for parents and family planning education and services.
3. States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate
measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the
health of children.
4. States Parties undertake to promote and encourage international cooperation with a view to
achieving progressively the full realization of the right recognized in the
present article. In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs
of developing countries.
Article 25
States Parties recognize the right of a child who has been
placed by the competent authorities for the purposes of care,
protection or treatment of his or her physical or mental health, to
a periodic review of the treatment provided to the child and all other
circumstances relevant to his or her placement.
Article 38
4. In accordance with their obligations under international
humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, States
Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of
children who are affected by an armed conflict.
Article 40
4. A variety of dispositions, such as care,
guidance and supervision orders; counseling; probation; foster care;
education and vocational training programs and other alternatives to
institutional care shall be available to ensure that
children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their well-being and
proportionate both to their circumstances and the offense.
(b) Whenever appropriate and desirable, measures for dealing
with such children without resorting to judicial
proceedings, providing that human rights and legal safeguards are fully
respected.
T
|
he day before Human Rights Day University of Nebraska
(Lincoln) political science professor Courtney Hillebrecht was published in the
Journal Star. In her Local View article “Why treaty on rights of disabled
matters,” this is some of what she wrote.
“There are well over 100 international human rights treaties
and countless other domestic laws that codify the principles espoused in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In many ways the development of
international and domestic human rights law reflects tremendous progress in the
protection of human dignity. These treaties and laws serve as benchmarks
against which citizens, allies and international organizations evaluate
countries’ human rights performances.
“The notion of human rights has become so powerful that even
the most egregious violators pay lip service to the idea of human rights. Some
even ratify human rights treaties. The United States is a major exception to
this trend of the international legalization of human rights.
“Despite Eleanor Roosevelt’s key role in developing the UDHR
(the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the United States’ long history
of advocating for and protecting human rights at home and abroad, the United
States has not ratified many — indeed most — international human rights
treaties.
Of the nine core United Nations
human rights treaties, the United States has ratified only three: the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International
Convention on All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention against
Torture.
The first week in December, she recounts, “The U.S. Senate failed
to pass a resolution giving consent for the United States to ratify the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention gained 61 supporting votes but was six votes
shy of the needed two-thirds majority.
“According to the United States International Council on
Disabilities, the convention had support of more than 300 disability groups and
21 veteran organizations. The convention also garnered support from all
Democratic and Independent senators and eight prominent Republicans.
“Critics of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, much like critics of other international human rights treaties,
argued that the convention violated the United States’ sovereignty and would
interfere in domestic politics.
“In reality, however, U.S. policy is consistent with the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ratification would have
little, if any, effect on domestic laws or policies.
“If that is the case, and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities would have little discernible effect on U.S. policy,
why does it matter that the United States has not ratified this Convention or
other human rights treaties?
“The answer to this question is two-fold,” Hillebrecht wrote.
First, ratification of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a way of showing
support for the disabled and veteran communities here at home.
Second, by promoting international
human rights treaties, the United States can help strengthen the international
legal and normative framework for human rights and help make human rights
achievable for all people around the globe.
On the
evidence of their actions, not mere oratory, decide for yourselves whether U.S.
government officials are in the least bit concerned with universal human rights
of or even U.S. constitutional guarantees for children or anyone else.
Sources and notes
U
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.S. on wrong side of history
Convention on the Rights of the
Child States Parties
December 2012 update
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http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&lang=en
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Convention on the Rights of the Child [54 articles], Text in
PDF Format, Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by
General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, Proclaimed by
General Assembly resolution 3447 (XXX) of 9 December 1975, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/res3447.htm
“United States fails to ratify UN Child Rights treaty,”
December 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/19/278997/us-fails-to-ratify-uncrc-treaty/
“Despite legal protections for persons with disabilities,
millions of Americans are deprived of their rights due to a lack of awareness
and a failure to provide the disabled with reasonable accommodation in many
areas of their lives.
“They still face considerable levels of discrimination in
access to services, employment, education, and other areas.
“Today, more than 50 million people in the U.S., roughly 1
in 6, personally experience some form of disability, a number that is growing
rapidly as the population ages.”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/56419346/THE-RIGHTS-OF-PERSONS-WITH-DISABILITIES-in-the-United-States
“Local View: ‘Why treaty on rights of disabled matters’” (by
Courtney Hillebrecht), December 9, 2012, http://journalstar.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/local-view-why-treaty-on-rights-of-disabled-matters/article_a3583ca2-ad60-5513-8d04-fdcba7c89c07.html
Courtney Hillebrecht is an assistant professor of political
science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
and its Optional Protocol was adopted on December 13, 2006 at the United
Nations Headquarters in New York. It was opened for signature on March 30, 2007.
The Convention had 82 signatories, 44 signatories to the
Optional Protocol and 1 ratification to the Convention, the highest number of
signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day.
It is the first
comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human
rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations.
The Convention entered into force on May 3, 2008. http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?navid=14&pid=150
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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