To: President Joe Biden and The United States Senate
President Biden, please ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)!
We fight for Women's Rights and for LGBTQ Rights. But why do we leave out Children's Rights? Why is the United States the only nation in the entire world that is not willing to ratify the most successful human rights treaty in history? US children deserve rights like all children in the world!
Twitter @UN_CRC
Twitter @UN_CRC
Why is this important?
Although his administration signed the UNCRC, President Bill Clinton never pushed the Senate for ratification. Nor did George W. Bush. At a debate on youth issues a month before the 2008 election, then candidate Obama said: “It’s embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land. I will review this and other treaties to ensure the United States resumes its global leadership in human rights.” (At the time there were only two countries that had not ratified because South Sudan was not yet an independent nation. These two nations have since ratified the treaty.) It is now 2025. Thirteen years have passed. Unfortunately, President Obama has not acted, despite this campaign pledge. President Trump has not acted, as well.
The Convention outlines the basic human rights that children everywhere should enjoy, among them the rights to survival, to develop to the fullest and to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation.
How am I affected? I am a German citizen who is the father of two young children who are US citizens. Because of US immigration law, I must periodically return to my home country. While I was abroad, in 2014, I was neither able to write to my children or to talk to them via telephone or Skype for over nine months. I am back in Germany again, only to find myself in the same situation. No contact for three months now. Among many essential rights outlined in the convention, there are two articles who could help my girl and my boy since they emphasize the importance of frequent contact between children and their parents:
Article 9 (Separation from parents): Children have the right to live with their fit parents. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.
Article 10 (Family reunification): Families whose members live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children can stay in contact, or get back together as a family.
There is a troubling lack of awareness of and education on child protection issues. However, these issues do not receive any media attention in the U.S. Our leaders like to say the U.S. is the world leader on human rights. That claim is undermined by its failure to join the rest of the world in ratifying this convention. This needs to stop. We owe it to our children.
President Obama, please ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child .. because it is the most successful human rights treaty in human history!
https://www.facebook.com/UNCRCPetitionUS/
https://www.twitter.com/UN_CRC/
The Convention outlines the basic human rights that children everywhere should enjoy, among them the rights to survival, to develop to the fullest and to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation.
How am I affected? I am a German citizen who is the father of two young children who are US citizens. Because of US immigration law, I must periodically return to my home country. While I was abroad, in 2014, I was neither able to write to my children or to talk to them via telephone or Skype for over nine months. I am back in Germany again, only to find myself in the same situation. No contact for three months now. Among many essential rights outlined in the convention, there are two articles who could help my girl and my boy since they emphasize the importance of frequent contact between children and their parents:
Article 9 (Separation from parents): Children have the right to live with their fit parents. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.
Article 10 (Family reunification): Families whose members live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children can stay in contact, or get back together as a family.
There is a troubling lack of awareness of and education on child protection issues. However, these issues do not receive any media attention in the U.S. Our leaders like to say the U.S. is the world leader on human rights. That claim is undermined by its failure to join the rest of the world in ratifying this convention. This needs to stop. We owe it to our children.
President Obama, please ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child .. because it is the most successful human rights treaty in human history!
https://www.facebook.com/UNCRCPetitionUS/
https://www.twitter.com/UN_CRC/