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Watching Out for Her Little Ones
Belgium and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Winter is finally upon us, ushering in the joys of the holidays and, at least for most of the country, the arrival of cold weather. As the temperature falls and the days get shorter, Moms and Dads brace themselves for the first signs of inevitable winter sicknesses: everything from a simple cough and cold to wheezing, strep, and the dreaded stomach flu. For many Americans, the solution to these illnesses is a simple medication, or perhaps vaccination in certain cases, but the choice of proper treatment is left to the parents.

Now imagine a place where the government threatens parents with fines, or even jail time, if they refuse to vaccinate their children - all in the name of “watching out” for the best interests of “its” children. Imagine a country that permits doctors to terminate the lives of “deficient” children up to a year old, even without parental consent, for the sake of “a better society”.  To find such a place, you need look no further than the nation of Belgium. Read the rest of this entry »

A Child-Centered Society
The Netherlands and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

If you could choose any country in the world in which to raise your child, which would you choose?

You might be inclined to choose the comforts of the United States or Britain, the charm of European mainstays like France and Germany, the Mediterranean climate of Italy, Spain or Tuscany, or the thrill of expanding opportunities in Hong Kong and Japan.  But according to the United Nations, the best place for you to raise your children is in a small cluster of countries nestled in Northern Europe.  That’s because the rights of your children are most likely to be protected in Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, or the number-one spot in the world . . . the Netherlands.

Kiss me, I’m . . . Dutch?

In 2007, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a comprehensive study  that evaluated the quality of life of children in more than twenty developed countries.  Starting with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the authors of the report developed different factors to use in compiling their list of the world’s most child-friendly countries.  Surprisingly, the Netherlands was at the top of their list.

According to UNICEF, Dutch children lead the rest of the world in terms of their “subjective well-being,” based on several international surveys where youth expressed their own opinions on their health, enjoyment of school, and overall satisfaction with themselves and their lives.¹ Put simply, children in the Netherlands are the most likely to feel healthy, like school, and enjoy their everyday lives.

A Child-centered Society

UNICEF’s findings were so unexpected that reporters from the United Kingdom (which had placed dead-last in the report) went overseas on a quest to discover the secret of the Netherlands’ success.  One such reporter, Kathryn Westcott of the BBC News, made a shocking discovery: Dutch children were certainly happy, but they were also the center of their society . Read the rest of this entry »

The Reality of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Imagine an Air Force mom, serving her country on a month-long deployment, who learns that her daughter has been secretly removed by local authorities, claiming the child has been “abandoned.” Children begin mandatory sex-education at the age of four, regardless of their family’s opinions, beliefs, or convictions, and parents are imprisoned if their children fail to receive any of their mandatory vaccinations. Parents live in a state of constant supervision and suspicion.

Imagine if your national government had the audacity to appoint a “guardian” to monitor your child from birth, charged with the legal responsibility to evaluate your decisions as a parent and armed with the legal authority to “intervene, prevent or rectify” any violations of your child’s rights. Public and private schools alike are policed by the national government, and classes begin with singing about the principles of peace, tolerance, and the United Nations. Your child’s confidential medical records, stored in a nation-wide electronic register from birth until age twenty, can be accessed at any time, without your knowledge, by any physician, teacher, or government social worker in the nation.

Now stop imagining, because for parents in the 193 countries that have ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, each of these scenarios is true. Read the rest of this entry »

Part I of an In-depth Look at Article 18 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

During our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, most of the articles we have considered have focused on the relationship between the state and the child. Article 18 is therefore unique in its emphasis on the responsibilities of parents, and the supervised relationship that these parents have with the state.

Article 18 is also one of the more complex articles in the Convention, divided into three sections that address distinct facets of the relationship between parents and the state. This week, we will focus on the first section, which says that “States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child,” and that parents are primarily responsible for their children. As parents, “the best interests of the child will be their basic concern.”

The danger of Article 18 is that it places an enforceable responsibility upon parents to make child-rearing decisions based on the “best interests of the child,” subjecting parental decisions to second-guessing at the discretion of government agents. Read the rest of this entry »

An In-depth Look at Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

During our e-mail series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a constant theme has been the recurring intervention of government power in the relationship between children and their parents. Broad discretion for the state is particularly prevalent in the Convention’s “freedom” provisions, which guarantee choices to children when it comes to expression, information, religion, and association.

Perhaps the most troubling of these “freedom” provisions is article 16, which stipulates that “no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence.” More so than any other section of the Convention, article 16 invokes the power of the government in ways previously unseen and untested in America’s legal and political history.

Paradigm Shift

The key to understanding article 16 is found in its absolute language: no child is to have his or her right to privacy violated. According to American law professor Cynthia Price Cohen, article 16 “uses the strongest obligatory language in the human rights lexicon to protect the child’s privacy rights.” Read the rest of this entry »

An In-Depth Look at Article 14 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

This week, we continue our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child with Article 14, which says that the government shall “respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” and shall also “respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child.”

Proponents of the CRC, such as law professor Jonathan Todres, has commented that Article 14 “provides for the role of parents in teaching religion to their children, while ensuring that the government does not impose restrictions on any child’s right to freedom of religion.” Nevertheless, a deeper understanding of this provision reveals that the purportedly “pro-parent” language is really another avenue for government power, not a shield to protect parental rights. Read the rest of this entry »

Part II of an In-depth Look at Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

In an age where information is becoming easier to access every day, children face new and uncharted risks. Our American heritage has long honored the right of parents to direct their child’s access to information, recognizing that in the vast majority of circumstances, parents are best situated to monitor their child’s activities and to provide necessary guidance during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Unfortunately, this vital role is being undermined by the rising tide of international thought, far removed from our own tradition and championed by international agreements like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Read the rest of this entry »

Part I of an In-depth Look at Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

This week, we continue our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by considering Article 13, which states that “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.”

The crux of this article is the child’s “right to information.” Children access information through what they are taught and what they discover on their own. This week, we will consider the Convention’s implications on what children are taught.
Read the rest of this entry »

An In-depth Look at Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Last week, we looked at how Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives the government authority to intervene in the decisions of parents simply by appealing to the child’s “best interests.” This week, we continue our in-depth analysis of the CRC by examining Article 12, which says: “States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.” Read the rest of this entry »

An In-depth Look at Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Last week, we began our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by looking at the Convention’s central focus on the “best interests of the child,” which allows the government to substitute its will for that of the parents. This principle is significant as we turn our attention to one of the first rights that the CRC grants to children: the right to remain in their family. Read the rest of this entry »