By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
In response to new and serious threats parental rights being posed by a U.N. treaty that President Barack Obama intends to sign, two pro-family legislators have introduced a Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) that will raise the rights of parents to a Constitutional level.
According to a report by the Christian News Wire, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina recently introduced the PRA which calls for parental rights to be explicitly protected in the Constitution as a fundamental and not just an implied right. Designated Senate Joint Resolution 16, the proposal is a companion bill to House Joint Resolution 42, introduced by Rep. Pete Hoekstra on March 31, 2009, which would prevent international law from interfering with state laws on families and children.
“Now we’re finding that parental rights are being attacked by courts all over the country,” Sen. DeMint said. “And as we look at where this country is going, particularly [regarding] more association with the United Nations and [consideration of] the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, these treaties would supersede all the laws in 50 states.”
ParentalRights.org, a grassroots organization devoted to protecting the rights of parents was instrumental in gaining sponsorship for this amendment in Congress and in educating the public about the serious threat this U.N. treaty poses for parents.
Their website clearly outlines exactly what will happen to parental rights if this treaty is ratified:
• The laws of all 50 states on children and parents would be superseded by this international law by virtue of a specific provision of the US Constitution which expressly declares treaties to be supreme over state law. Virtually all law on children and parents is state law.
• Good parents would no longer be entitled to the legal presumption that they act in the best interests of their children. Instead, the government would have the authority to overrule all parents on any decision concerning the child if the government believed it could make a better decision.
• Parents could no longer spank their children.
• Children would have the legal right to choose their own religion. Parents would be permitted only to give advice.
• America would be under a binding legal obligation to massively increase its federal spending on children’s programs.
“The only kind of law that can override a treaty is the Constitution of the United States,” the website says. “State laws or state constitutions cannot override treaties.”
This means the only option is to place parental rights into the explicit text of the Constitution, which is precisely what the PRA will do. According to the bill, the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children would be declared a fundamental right.
“Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.
And, most importantly, the amendment states that “No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.”
As ParentalRights.org warns: “We cannot wait until our rights are formally demolished. We must act now to stop international law and protect these two key principles: Fit parents should be allowed to direct the upbringing of their children, and; American legislators, not international tribunals, should make the public policy for America on families and children.”
For more information, visit www.parentalrights.org
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