What rights do US children have? None.
In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) brought together world leaders to recognize that childhood is “a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity.” This led to the development of an international legal framework which made clear that children are more than simply possessions of their parents; they have their own rights as individuals, and these rights should be protected. It is the most supported human rights framework in history and 196 countries have ratified the treaty. Yet, one nation is conspicuously missing — the United States.
The reasons for this omission are not as important as its implications for how we craft policies and practices that shape the everyday experiences of children and youth.
The UNCRC’s basic tenet is written in §Article 3: “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.” This seems an unqualified public good. Who could argue with maintaining the best interests of the child?
Other articles move into more contested terrain in the U.S. For example, there is §Article 13: “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.” If the U.S. had ratified the UNCRC, perhaps all children and youth in every state would have access to books, medical information, and historical perspectives of all kinds, even those that legislators claim are not in their best interests.
Considering refugees, §Article 22 states: “…whether unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person, [refugee children will] receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance.” We have many examples in the U.S. where this intention has not been met, most recently the atrocities at the U.S.-Mexico border involving Latin American children. What would this look like if the UNCRC had been ratified?
A signpost from our perspective as people who study school recess is §Article 31: “Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child…” Given the inequities in access to recess and the frequent withholding of recess for punishment and missed schoolwork, the U.S. educational system has not embraced the right to play for all children, as the UNCRC says it should.
Yet the most tragic failure of the U.S.’s unwillingness to recognize the rights of children is illustrated by §Article 19: “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…”
We have failed U.S. children and youth in so many ways on this human right: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in churches, sports, and homes; child welfare systems that destroy families rather than support them; educational systems that harm children by reinforcing existing biases. And, importantly today, by creating a society in which children can never be safe from gun violence wrought by those who are seeking to harm innocents.
The ratification of the UNCRC would not automatically reverse the scourge of gun violence against minors in the U.S. But it would give children and their supporters recourse to use this international framework to challenge a government that refuses action. As Dr. Roy Guerrero, Uvalde’s only pediatrician, testified before Congress: “Keeping [children] safe from preventable diseases, I can do. Keeping them safe from bacteria and brittle bones, I can do…But making sure our children are safe from guns, that’s the job of our politicians and leaders. In this case, you are the doctors and our country is the patient.”
Probably many readers have never heard of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and did not know that the U.S. stands alone in its unwillingness to ratify it. It is an epic failure on the part of our country and one that could be rectified, if only we truly believed that children have rights: rights which deserve to be made explicit so as to be considered paramount in our institutions and policies. The time to act is now.
Rebecca A. London, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of Camus + Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Catherine Ramstetter, Ph.D., is the founder of Successful Healthy Children and founding member of the Global Recess Alliance.
Source: TEST FEED1
