The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was crafted in 1989 in response to human rights violations against children worldwide, ranging from slavery to prostitution and conscription into armies. However, it has triggered consternation and concern, especially among homeschoolers, in the U.S., one of only two countries yet to ratify it.
Goal of UNCRC
THE UNCRCs aim is to outline human rights for children more completely and to provide a set of guiding principles in how children are viewed around the world. The basic premise is that children are not property, but human beings with their own rights and responsibilities, appropriate to their ages and stages of development. (UNCRC FAQ )
U.S. and Somalia Only Ratification Hold-outs
Although the United States helped craft the Convention, only the U.S. and Somalia have not ratified it. In 2001, the Bush Administration opposed signing the Convention saying, “We believe the text goes too far when it asserts entitlements based on economic, social and cultural rights. ... The human rights-based approach ... poses significant problems as used in this text." (Statement by Ambassador E. Michael Southwick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, General Assembly Special Session on Children February 1, 2001)
Conservative groups typically oppose the Convention out of concerns that it will infringe upon the rights of parents to oversee their children’s educations or to raise or discipline their children according to personal beliefs, preferences or convictions, an issue of particular concern to home educators. The other major concern is one of national sovereignty. Opponents say the Convention will supersede national laws and erode domestic policy.
In 2004, in opposition to the Convention, a religiously and politically conservative legal group called Home School Legal Defense Association angled to create a Constitutional “Parental Rights Amendment” in order to protect the rights of parents to education their children at home.. In 2009, the amendment idea was reintroduced as HJ Resolution 42, and currently remains in subcommittee.
Substantiated Support for UNCRC
Proponents of UNCRC point out that the Convention aims at providing an international framework of care and support for children around the world who don’t enjoy the relative safety and well being of children in the U.S., and that the American refusal to ratify it sends the wrong message. Proponents further argue that fears of sovereign infringement are ill-informed and misguided.
In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that international treaties do not override, nor can they amend the U.S. Constitution, and in Reid v. Covert ( October 1956, 354 U.S. 1, pg 17), formally recognized the supremacy of the Constitution over a Treaty.
Cornell University Law School observes, "International law is a part of the law of the United States only for the application of its principles on questions of international rights and duties. It does not restrict the United States or any other nation from making laws governing its own territory.."
UNCRC supporters also point out that rights as citizens, and as parents, families, and homeschoolers are already protected in theU.S. Constitution by amendments one, four, nine, ten and fourteen. In addition, none of the democratic countries which have ratified the Convention have experienced any infringements on their sovereignty or on parental rights. Ultimately, Congress has the final say on ratification and the Obama administration appears to be in support of the Convention.
UNCRC holds hope for creating a global framework for providing basic, much needed human rights to children around the world. Concerns about infringement on national sovereignty and rights provided in the U.S. Constitution, as well as threats to homeschooling appear unsubstantiated.
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