Take your Parents to Court

On April 1, the Islamic nation of Maldives proudly announced a breakthrough in long-stalled negotiations to create an international tribunal to receive complaints from individual children. For twenty years, internationalist efforts to create a new world tribunal for children to challenge the actions of their own governments have been thwarted by political division. But, after a month of negotiations led by Maldives a unanimous agreement was reached on the components for a new optional protocol to be added to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.


Maldives is a curious choice to lead negotiations on a human rights treaty. When Maldives signed and ratified the CRC in 1990-91, it boldly rejected any semblance of religious freedom—a central “right” in the CRC. The Maldivian reservation proclaims: “The Government of the Republic of Maldives expresses its reservation to paragraph 1 of article 14 of the said Convention on the Rights of the Child, since the Constitution and the Laws of the Republic of Maldives stipulate that all Maldivians should be Muslims.”

What will this new protocol accomplish? According to Miadhu, a Maldivian news agency, the “protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), will create a procedure whereby children who are being abused or their representatives (such as national child protection NGOS, lawyers, and doctors) could seek assistance from international human rights protection mechanisms when domestic institutions are failing to offer protection.” [Read the rest of the article.]

Action Item

This week, we urge you to get two postcards, address one to each of your senators, and send them a brief message along these lines:

Senator {Smith},

I oppose the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child because it will intrude on the sovereignty of my nation, my state, and my family. The proposed 3rd Optional Protocol now being written will only make matters worse. Please oppose this convention, and support the constitutional amendment (SJ Res.16) that will permanently end this threat.

Respectfully yours,
{signature, address, zip code}

To find your senators' contact information, visit parentalrights.org/States, click on your state, then click on your senators' names to visit their web pages. It will take these cards a few weeks to reach the Senate, but we are hopeful their arrival will coincide with the next stage in our efforts to defeat the CRC. (More details to come!)