As Bush Administration officials at the U.S.
Department of State begin to familiarize themselves with the
activities of the United Nations and its many affiliated agencies,
they will be inundated with reports about mission creep,
overstretched resources and waste, unfair dues assessments, and
other problems repeatedly targeted for reform by Congress. One
area, however, deserves focused attention: how various U.N.
agencies are attempting to force countries to implement a radical
interpretation of treaties on women's and children's rights. Like
oversight of how the federal government implements the laws
Congress passes, oversight of how U.N. agencies implement treaties,
conventions, and agreements is vital to assure Americans that the
activities funded comport with U.S. policy and are not inimical to
U.S. interests.
A
close examination of the reports issued by U.N. committees
monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) shows that these committees
are pushing an agenda that counters traditional moral and social
norms regarding the family, marriage, motherhood, and religion. The
advice that these agents of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human
Rights and other agencies give individual signatories often
violates the language of the U.N.'s own founding documents and
undermines a nation's sovereign right to determine its own domestic
policy. The policies and laws they push also promote behavior that
ultimately will cause greater harm to women and children,
increasing family breakdown and the many problems associated with
it.
As
this report will show, the committees are very direct about what
they want. One of them, for example, expressed concern that parents
in England and Wales were allowed to withdraw their children from
sex education programs in school; another criticized the
celebration of Mothers' Day in Belarus because it allegedly
promoted a "sex-role stereotype." Committees have criticized
"cultural and religious values" that support mothers staying at
home to raise their young children, because they "undermine the
universality of women's rights." They have urged countries to
institute legal structures that would allow children to take their
parents to court when they disagree about the content of sex
education. They advise countries that prohibit prostitution to
legitimize it, and countries that have relaxed their laws against
prostitution to extend to prostitution all the legal rights
afforded other professions. And they have criticized conscientious
objection clauses in laws for doctors that object to abortion.
In
general, the social policy agents at these U.N. committees, working
often with radical special-interest groups, advise nations to alter
the very structure of their societies to decrease the emphasis on
marriage, the nuclear family, parental authority, and religious
beliefs; mothers are encouraged to find fulfillment by leaving
their children in the care of strangers and entering the workforce,
and social or legal restraints on sexual activity among adolescents
are targeted for removal. Surprisingly, these committees ignore the
mounting evidence that the basic family unit of married parents who
worship yields far superior social outcomes for children's health,
intellectual development, and educational and income attainment,
and lower rates of crime, welfare dependency, and teenage
pregnancy. They also ignore polls that show most mothers would
prefer staying home to raise their young children.
Although the United States has not
ratified these conventions, the Clinton Administration supported
the agenda of the U.N. implementing committees. The Bush
Administration and Congress now have an opportunity to make a
strong statement: The United States firmly supports parents' rights
and national sovereignty and will oppose the efforts of U.N. agents
to impose their radical agenda on any country, especially small and
poor ones. The State Department should review the reports of these
committees and devise a strategy to reduce the threat that their
proposals pose to all societies. Specifically:
-
Make clear that the United States
will not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child or sign
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women because of the implementing committees' controversial
interpretations.
-
Make clear that the United States
firmly supports the right of parents to make decisions regarding
the health, education, and religious upbringing of their
children.
-
Urge other nations, especially poor and
lesser developed nations, on a selective basis to refuse to
cooperate with U.N. committee reporting systems in these areas
because the directions they receive violate traditional family and
religious norms.
-
Establish ways to counter any
threat or reprisals at the U.N. against nations, especially poor
countries, that seek to defend their cultures, religious beliefs,
and families.
-
Conduct hearings on the efforts of
U.N. committees to implement policies that undermine the family,
religious freedom, and national sovereignty.
-
Demand that the State Department
submit by a fixed date an annual detailed report of the activities
and spending of U.N. committees that deal with family and religious
issues, and use the evidence in these reports to reduce funding for
any activities aimed at changing traditional family and religious
norms.
-
Request the U.S. General Accounting
Office to assess the flow of funds from the United States to
non-governmental organizations acting under U.N. auspices to
implement the committees' radical agenda.
- Start a new alliance at the U.N.
with countries that will work to protect and strengthen social
structures supporting the family, religious freedom, and national
sovereignty.
Patrick F.
Fagan is William H. G. FitzGerald Fellow in Family and
Cultural Issues at The Heritage Foundation.