FAWCO has written to those responsible for advancing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to its ratification by the U.S. Senate, pointing out that since Somalia managed to finalize its ratification process on October 1, the United States is now the only outlier in the world. FAWCO’s letters to President Obama (who must submit the treaty to the Senate), to Vice President Biden (President of the Senate), to the Majority and Minority Leaders and to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (responsible for sending the treaty to the full Senate for a vote), all ended:
"With the United States now alone in not having ratified the CRC, Mr. President/Honorable Senators, the time has come.”
You can help!
Write to your 2 Senators* and ask for their support in getting the "most widely accepted human rights instrument in history” ratified at last in the United States Senate!
* Find them at www.senate.gov
Always be sure to begin your message/letter saying you are a constituent and vote in XXX city though you currently live abroad. The address you give should always be your U.S. voting address.
Feel free to forward the letters FAWCO sent to President Obama and/or to the Senators in PDF form or borrow from their language using the following:
- Around the world, the CRC is an important tool to promote protections and rights for the most vulnerable and marginalized children. It is the world’s strongest commitment to promote and respect the human rights of children, including the right to life, to health, to education and to play, as well as the right to family life and to be protected from violence and from any form of discrimination.
- After Somalia’s ratification on October 1, Ban Ki-moon called on the United States to join the global movement and “reach the objective of universal ratification with every country recognizing the human rights of children.” 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.
- FAWCO has asked the President to submit the CRC to the Senate by the next Universal Children’s Day, November 20, 2015.
- By ratifying the CRC, the Senate would make the United States eligible to participate in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (the international body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the CRC). America could then take an active role in encouraging further progress in other countries around the world.