Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Why should homeschoolers be concerned about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? Today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Farris examines the impact this Convention could have on long-held American freedoms.

Michael Farris:
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is enforced by a 10-member committee. This committee, based in Geneva, determines whether nations which have adopted the treaty are in compliance with its provisions. It issues massive "country reports" each year, citing its findings. These rulings would be binding on American courts, which would be required to enforce this foreign committee's interpretations.

The committee has consistently prohibited the use of corporal punishment by schools, families, or anyone else. All spanking would be banned by the UN.

The committee also champions the right of the child to be consulted in decision making. In 1995, the United Kingdom was deemed out of compliance because it allowed parents to remove their children from public school sex-education classes without consulting the child. By the same reasoning, parents would be denied the ability to homeschool their children unless the government first talked with their children and the government decided what was best.

This committee would even have the right to determine what religious teaching, if any, served the child's best interest.

These are serious issues that should concern all parents. But we can still act to reign in these international tyrants.

I'm Mike Farris.