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[Editors Note: The following is the 4th position in the Christian Coalitions
Contract with the American Family]
Enactment of a Parental Rights Act and defeat of the U.N. Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
The United States Constitution does not explicitly set forth protections for
parental rights, but a long line of court cases have held that the United
States Constitution protects the right of parents to control the upbringing
of their children. The rights of parents, however, are under increasing
assault in modern day society.
For example, state officials removed an eighth-grade girl from her home
because she objected to the ground rules (regarding use of drugs, curfew
hours, etc.) her parents had set. One mother's child was removed from her
home because the mother refused to continue to take her first-grade child to
therapy lessons for hyperactivity. And in 1992, a San Diego grand jury found
that 35 to 70 percent of the county's foster children "never should have been
removed from their parental homes."
Enactment of a Parental Rights Act will ensure that parental rights are not
violated and ensure that parents have the foremost duty and responsibility to
direct the upbringing of their children. Representatives Steve Largent (R-OK)
and Mike Parker (D-MS) in the House, and Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and
Howell Heflin (D-AL) in the Senate, are drafting a parental rights act to
address this critical problem. While language is still being finalized, the
authors intend that the Parental Rights Act of 1995 will clarify that "the
right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children," includes
overseeing their children's education, health care, discipline, and religious
training. Moreover, it requires that any governmental interference in the
parent-child relationship be justified by "clear and convincing evidence"
that it "is essential to accomplish a compelling governmental interest" and
that it is applied in "the least restrictive means" possible.
The threat to the rights of America's parents is very real, as the movement
to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child exemplifies. The
Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty adopted in
1989 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It has not been ratified
in the United States. In the past, the United States has not supported the
treaty due to concerns that it may concede jurisdiction over United States
citizens to an international body and international court.
Christian Coalition opposes the treaty because it interferes with the
parent-child relationship, threatens the sovereignty of U.S. law, and
elevates as "rights" such dubious provisions as access to television and mass
media. The following are some of the examples of the absolute rights given to
children through this treaty:
"No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his
or her privacy, family, home or correspondence - The child has the right to
the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
"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."
With respect to the right of the child to freedom of association or peaceful
assembly, "[n]o restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights
other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary
in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public
safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the
protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
Under the treaty, parents could well lose their right to prevent their child
from associating with disreputable individuals such as delinquents, or
receiving literature or gaining access to mass media communication (including
films and television) that is not age-appropriate.
Pursuant to the treaty, a Committee on the Rights of the Child has been
established to review reports from nations regarding their progress in
implementing the treaty. The committee has urged that in the area of sex
education, parents be required to give the opinion of the child equal weight.
The committee warned that "the possibility for parents in England and Wales
to withdraw their children from parts of the sex education programmes in
schools" undermines "the right of the child to express his/her opinion."
The committee's concern about soliciting children's views prior to "exclusion
from school" should be of particular concern to parents who educate their
children at home. It is clear that rejection of this treaty by the United
States Senate would be in the best interests of American parents.
... Government isn't the answer...government is the problem!
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