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| Date: From: Subject: | 6/12/2009 3:28:33 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Oregon--House Memorial Urges Ratification of UN Treaty |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== June 12, 2009 Oregon--House Memorial Urges Ratification of UN Treaty Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: Many of you may be familiar with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This convention, or treaty, has been ratified by 193 countries. While the CRC was signed on behalf of the United States in 1995 by Madeleine Albright, then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, it has never been ratified by the U.S. However, the Oregon House has introduced a Joint Memorial to urge Congress to ratify this treaty. Introduced late last month by Representative Chuck Riley, this bill was urged by Dr. Jessica Ritter, an assistant professor at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. Dr. Ritter has given several talks on the CRC and was responsible for getting a similar resolution passed by the Portland City Council supporting the CRC. If the CRC were to be ratified here in the United States it would radically change family relationships and negatively impact our legal system in several ways. Under the U.S. Constitution, ratified treaties become the supreme law of the land, and as such would be enforced in our state and federal courts. This places the U.S. in a unique situation, different from all other nations that have ratified the CRC. In most other nations, the CRC is international pressure and not as binding as it would be here in the U.S. Among other things, the CRC would require the government and every government agency to apply the "best interest of the child" doctrine to every situation involving children. Currently, this principal is generally only applied in cases of parents getting divorced, a minor seeking to be emancipated, or where the parents have been convicted of abuse or neglect of the child. Under the CRC, the best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent's decision. The CRC would also give a child the "right to be heard," which would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed. While the CRC does not specifically address home education, it does give a child the "right to a specific quality of education." However, a report requested by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in England was just released yesterday by Graham Badman. This report makes many recommendations to increase the regulation of homeschool families in England, including allowing local government officials the ability to enter the home and question homeschool children away from their parents to ensure that they are safe and receiving a quality education. The report argues that this is necessary to comply with the CRC. You can read this report at: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6639 . There was a public hearing on House Joint Memorial 23 which was attended by OCEANetwork legislative liaison Rodger Williams. Mr. Williams testified against the bill, as did another individual. Only the sponsor spoke in favor of the bill. At this time no work session has been scheduled for HJM 23. However, we are closely monitoring this bill and will immediately notify you if your action is needed to help defeat this resolution. If you are not a member of HSLDA and would like to join to help us protect your right (and that of parents in general) to teach your children at home please visit us at: http://www.hslda.org/join/join.asp . If you would also like to follow the concerns with the CRC more closely, please go to www.parentalrights.org . Sincerely, Thomas Schmidt HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Can you look at the clouds and tell the direction of the wind? An interesting phenomenon of wind is that it can blow in multiple directions at the same time, at different heights from the ground. But usually there is a prevailing wind. HSLDA watches the gusts and monitors the prevailing trends of change in the legal climate of home education. So no matter which way the wind is blowing, we're there to protect your family. 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