The United States Position Concerning the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Domestic Policies and International Commitment.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was available for ratification in 1990. To date every nation except Somalia and the United States has ratified this international legally binding human rights instrument. The nature of "American Exceptionalism" in United States social policy informs the political discourse in regard to this multi-issue human rights instrument. When Senator Bill Bradley had sponsored Senate Resolution 70, in 1990, calling on the signing and ratification of the CRC it passed unanimously. Since the CRC was signed by Madeleine Albright in 1995 all the political elites, from both parties, have dropped the CRC from their agendas and Republican Party elites have sided with Christian Coalition interest groups such as the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America against the CRC. The Anti-CRC coalition has been very vocal regarding the impact on home schooling; access to abortion, and international agencies dictating family values. The issue at hand is whether the concerns of the Christian Right, such as parent's rights, are substantial issues or are the political elites using unfounded concerns to divert attention from other issues? The CRC contains economic and social rights and the United States has not ratified the International Convention for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights. The reasons behind the United States reticence to acknowledge social and economic rights was a factor in American Exceptionalism in social policy and this study looks to see if American Exceptionalism is a factor in our stance regarding the international human rights discourse. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]