Yesterday, as I finished up the 7th and last module of a child development course for high school students, I found this LA Times article:
Globally Embraced Child Rights Treaty Languishes in U.S.
Accord: Conservatives’ opposition–and some say, White House inaction–has kept the pact from being submitted to the Senate. It has been ratified by 191 nations.
Here is an excerpt from the article that I found particularly disturbing:
In opposing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Foreign Relations Committee is in sync with the views of several conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the Christian Coalition and the Eagle Forum.
“The convention basically states that children are autonomous, and it takes away the right of a parent to be involved in crucial decisions in people’s lives. It essentially makes the government the parent,” said Denesha Reid, director of public policy at Concerned Women for America in Washington.
“It gives children unlimited rights, such as freedom of expression,” Reid continued. “It’s also against abuse of children and, while we’re opposed to abuse, what is abuse? Does that include spanking a child? A family should be able to discipline a child as it sees fit.”
With respect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child I wanted to give a balanced view in the Module so I wrote this:
Officials from the administration of President Ronald Reagan helped write the Convention; it was signed February 23, 1995 by United Nation’s Ambassador Madeleine Albright on behalf of President William “Bill” Clinton. The Convention has not been officially agreed to (ratified) by Congress. The United States is the only country in the world with a functioning government that has not officially adopted the convention. Since many countries have accepted the Convention but still do not grant children rights in practice, there is more to children’s rights than signing the UN Convention.
However, the fact that uninformed people promote ideas that are harmful to children and society in the name of G-d bothered me all day. Coincidentally, last night this was on AC360:
What should parents of at-risk children do? The answer is positive parenting which focuses on preventing “bad behavior” from ever happening in the first place. At-risk children need more positive direction. They need constant supervision and they are very difficult to parent partly because they require so much more time. There is no easy “spanking fix”. If there were, we would simply do it and the problem of antisocial behavior in children, teens and adults would go away!
For more on positive parenting of at-risk children see: