Universal Children’s Day is celebrated every year on November 20 to mark the day when the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a multilateral human rights treaty that promotes the rights of all children worldwide. All of the UN Member States as well as the Holy See and the State of Palestine have ratified the CRC. Only the United States has not yet ratified the most universally accepted treaty in history. With Somalia’s recent ratification Ban Ki Moon called for the US to join the global movement and reach the objective of universal ratification with every country recognizing the human rights of children.
Every year, FAWCO asks you to use Universal Children’s Day as an occasion to advocate for US ratification of this important treaty. It is time that the US Senate finally recognizes that too many US children need the CRC to motivate necessary changes that will enhance the well-being of our country’s most marginalized children. Let us appeal to President Obama and to our US senators and express our concern that the conspicuous absence of the United States as a party to the CRC undermines our nation’s international leadership role on behalf of children and families.
If ratified by the United States, the CRC would bolster existing protections and foster US commitment to promote the rights of children. As a party to the Convention, the US would be eligible to participate in the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the international body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the CRC) and take an active role in encouraging further progress in countries that have already ratified the Convention.
For more information visit: http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx or http://www.unicef.org/crc/