Michael Farris:
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is enforced by a 10-member board. This board determines whether nations which have adopted the treaty are in compliance. If the United States ratifies the convention, the board’s interpretation of the treaty will have binding authority on our courts. Accordingly, American courts will not be free to interpret this treaty in a manner different from the UN tribunal.

Among other things, the UN board of experts has found these violations of the convention in nations that have ratified it: first, in the United Kingdom, the UN noted that parents violate Article 12 when they do not allow their children to express their own opinion in a parental decision to select an alternative to public education. This means that the convention prevents parents from selecting private schools and homeschools unless the government solicits and weighs the child’s opinion in the matter.

Second, any nation that permits spanking or fails to aggressively prosecute spanking will be held to have violated the treaty. Third, one country was told to “reconsider its policy on religious education for children in light of the general principle of non-discrimination and the right to privacy.”

Clearly, if these rulings were applied to the United States, they would violate fundamental constitutional rights of American citizens. Tomorrow we’re going to look at how we can battle this form of judicial tyranny. I’m Mike Farris.