Back in the days of the Clinton administration, an ugly idea was born, and it grew. It was called the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The stated purpose of this, as posted at the U.N.’s website, is “to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.”

Sounds good, right? No sane person wants to see children hurt. But, in this case, there’s a catch. Again in the words of the U.N.:

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights-civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights….By agreeing to undertake the obligations of the Convention (by ratifying or acceding to it), national governments have committed themselves to protecting and ensuring children’s rights and they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community.

Here’s where things get sticky. By ratifying this, the U.S. would be handing over its authority to the U.N. Their rules would supersede our laws.

To make matters worse, those who are the driving force behind this often view children’s rights differently than we do. Parents who spank could be found in violation of it. So could parents who homeschool.

Bottom line: this stinks. It first reared its ugly head during the Clinton administration (new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a big proponent of this). Fortunately it was not ratified by our Congress at that time. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration did nothing to promote it.

But now the Obama administration is in charge, and many of its members are on the U.N.’s side on this issue. In fact, the Senate is scheduled to vote very soon on the confirmation of Deputy Attorney General nominee David W. Ogden, who actually believes we should already be following the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Learn more about him here.

As parents, we need to stay on top of this, and to call our legislators as the need arises.

HT: Kim D.