NCFPC Co-Releases Study on U.N. Treaties

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NCFPC Co-Releases Study on U.N. Treaties

Special Report - May 14, 2009
The institution of the family will be undermined and North Carolina’s sovereignty threatened, if the United States ratifies two United Nations treaties involving women’s and children’s rights, according to a new report released today by the Family Research Council and the North Carolina Family Policy Council. The 36-page report, entitled “How U.N. Conventions on Women’s and Children’s Rights Undermine Family, Religion, and Sovereignty,” was written by Family Research Council scholars, Patrick Fagan, William Saunders and Michael Fragoso. It details the negative consequences of U.S. ratification of the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”). The U.S. has never ratified either treaty (Senate ratification requires 67 votes), although President Bill Clinton did sign the CRC in 1995.

According to the FRC/NCFPC report, the ratification of CEDAW and CRC in other countries has empowered activist bodies working toward:

Legalizing prostitution and elevating it to the status of a profession
Diminishing the legal protection of freedom of conscience
Promoting access to abortion, contraception, and other “medical” services for children without parental consent
Promoting abortion under the fiction of an international law mandate
Demeaning traditional motherhood and those who support it
Promoting professional child care for newborns
Equating mild spanking of children by their parents with serious physical abuse.

In addition, the report warns that state sovereignty would be severly threatened by the ratificaction of these treaties because family law has historically been under the control of states.“Should the President sign and the Senate ratify these treaties, family law will be in chaos. The supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution makes such treaties the supreme law of the land; thus, all inconsistent state laws would be void,” said Patrick Fagan, lead author of the report. “This would ‘federalize’ all family law, which under our federal system is a matter for individual states. It would also lead to endless litigation to try to figure out whether particular excising state laws were, or were not, encompassed within the ambit of these treaties.”

According to the report, the U.S. ratification of CEDAW and CRC would also “empower activist judges,” who consistently look to international law, not the U.S. Constitution, to shape their rulings in controversial cases involving everything from family law to human rights.

“The United States should never ratify either of these treaties,” said Bill Brooks, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council. “Both the CEDAW and the CRC represent a significant threat to the autonomy of the family, religious freedom, and state sovereignty in this country. North Carolinians need to educate themselves on the dangers of these UN treaties, and urge their senators to vote against ratification, should either treaty come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.”