Call NOW To Stop UN Children's Treaty

I received this email from the HSLDA, it's important that those of us who are opposed to this treaty act now.

Call Now to Stop
UN Children’s Treaty

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends,

Monday in a Harlem middle school, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told a group of 120 students that administration officials are actively discussing “when and how it might be possible to join” (that is, ratify) the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As before, she also communicated what a disgrace it is that the U.S. would stand with only Somalia against such a widely accepted treaty.

This is the first direct public statement by the Obama administration that it will seek ratification of the UN CRC.

In my 30 years of political involvement, I have learned to recognize this as what is called a “trial balloon.” Like in World War I trench warfare, our opponents have “sent up a balloon” to see if it will draw fire. If things remain quiet, they will proceed with their plans to push for ratification of the CRC in the U.S. Senate. To discourage them from doing so, we need to make sure that our voices are heard with unmistakable clarity. We must let the Obama administration know that we oppose this anti-family, anti-American treaty.

Action

Here’s what we need you all to do:

1. Call the White House comments line at 202-456-1111. Tell them you heard the administration wants to ratify the CRC, and you strongly oppose this giving away of U.S. sovereignty to the UN. Also, keep in mind that this treaty gives the government jurisdiction to override any decision made by any parent if the government thinks that a better decision can be made—even if there is no proof of any harm.

2. Call the Ambassador Susan Rice’s office at the United Nations. Tell her that you want her to represent the United States to the world rather than trying to get the United States to go along with international law initiated by the UN. Her office number is 212-415-4000.

3. Contact your senators and urge them to oppose ratification of this treaty. (Find your senators’ contact information by using HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox.) Ask them also to defeat it once and for all by cosponsoring SJRes 16—the Parental Rights Amendment.

It is very important that we speak up right now. Please call before you close this email!

Michael Farris
HSLDA Chairman

Three Major Developments Threatening Parental Rights

In their article Civil Rights Forces Mobilize, Parentalrights.org reports that in just the last few weeks there have been major developments that put parental rights at risk.

Three major developments—all of them ominous—have occurred in the last several days.

1. On June 1 and 2, Georgetown University Law School hosted a two-day symposium entitled “The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Why It Is Time to Ratify.”

This well-funded conference was held to organize a new coalition effort by American internationalists to seek ratification of the UN child’s rights treaty.

2. In the second week of June, a major study was released by the British education ministry calling for dramatically dangerous increases in the regulation of homeschoolers in that nation.

This study concludes that the UN CRC requires that the government enter every homeschooling home and privately interview each homeschooling child to determine “the child’s wishes” regarding his or her education.

3. On June 17, at the UN headquarters in Geneva, the UN’s Human Rights Committee—which oversees all human rights treaties—announced that it was forming a committee to draft a new “protocol” for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under this new addition to the CRC, individual children would be able to file a formal legal complaint if they believe that their rights had been violated. It would give this new international tribunal the right to determine if the child’s treaty rights had been violated by any person.

It is obvious from the recent symposium at Georgetown that supporters of the UNCRC are beginning to organize and push for the US to ratify this treaty. The recent study in Britain confirms that the UNCRC is unfavorable to homeschooling and would require the government, not parents, to determine what is in the best interest of the child's education. And since the UN Human Rights committee is seeking new protocols for the UNCRC that would give children the power to sue their parents we can see that the threats against parental rights are very real. In America, parents, not judges, need to be the decision makers in the lives of their own children. These latest developments are a reminder as to why we need to take action now to protect parental rights. The only way to stop all threats against parental rights is to pass the The Parental Rights Amendment. To learn more about the proposed amendment or to find ways you can help protect parental rights, visit parentalrights.org.

Parental Rights Amendment Introduced in the Senate

Parentalrights.org Reports that the Parental Rights Amendment has now been introduced into the Senate!

The Parental Rights Amendment as proposed by Rep. Pete Hoekstra in House Joint Resolution 42 has now been introduced in the U.S. Senate as well. The companion bill, Senate Joint Resolution 16, was introduced by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina in May. Currently, Senator DeMint is the only sponsor.

Our efforts in the House have been quite successful, securing 93 sponsors to date. So now is the time to contact your senators and urge them to sign on as cosponsors to S.J.Res. 16, the Parental Rights Amendment, in the U.S. Senate. To find their contact information, enter your zip code in the box at Congress.org.

Visit ParentalRights.org to learn more.

Call To Action

I received this email from Parentalrights.org. I am sure this will be useful for any state.

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Dear ParentalRights.org Kansas Supporters,

We are launching a new nationwide effort to lobby Congressional support this summer and hope you will join us! Please forward this information to family, friends, and organizational contacts and encourage them to join this important effort! As of today, the Parental Rights Amendment has 93 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. While we are excited to see such significant support for this issue, we must continue presenting this issue to more Congressmen and Senators.

Here's what you can do to be pro-active in your Congressional district this summer:

1) Find 20 people to help you gather 1,000 petition signatures, urging their Congressmen or Senators to sponsor the Parental Rights Amendment. (If your Congressman is already a co-sponsor, focus on your Senators.) You can find a printable version of the petition form on our website (http://tr.im/ncyq). I have also attached a document with the contact information for the Congressmen and Senators in your state.

2) It might be easier to gather this many signatures if each person collects 50. Or, hold a petition drive in your town, at your church or local grocery store, etc.

3) If you cannot find 20 people in your district, gather support from other districts and present the petition to multiple Congressmen AND your Senators.

4) Call your representative's local office and set up an appointment to meet with him or her to discuss the Amendment. If you are unable to set up an appointment over the phone, or if they are unresponsive, look up the next townhall or public meeting and have all 20 members of your group attend.

5) Once you are face-to-face with your Congressman or Senator, hand them the petition of 1,000 signatures.

6) Also, mail us a copy of the signatures to:

ParentalRights.org

PO Box 1090

Purcellville, VA 20132

Federal HIPAA Law Oversteps Parental Rights

The UNCRC is not the only threat against Parental Rights. In their article Federal HIPAA Law Oversteps Parental Rights, Parentalrights.org points out how Federal HIPAA laws currently in place are already being used to circumvent a parent's right to information about their own child's health.

They site a case in a which a father took his 13 year old son to the hospital because of a reaction he was having to his perscription medication. The doctor asked the father for permission to test for illegal drug use and the father gave his consent. However, after the tests were completed the doctor would not give the father the results citing the child's right to medical privacy.

While it makes sense that the parent must give consent for all testing for a minor child it makes absolutely no sense that the parent should not then have access to the results of the test. They are the parent and have a right to know everything about the condition of their child, not the mention they are person legally responsible for paying for the test in the first place!

The article then goes on to explain how HIPAA actually gives doctors the power to decide what information they will share with parents. It basically boils down to giving doctors authority that parents should have.

...our federal government has invaded parents rights through the HIPAA regulations—yes, those same regulations that waste millions of pieces of paper every year by requiring that doctors give us pages of tiny print legalese that most Americans have the good sense to simply ignore.

The federal government maintains a website, giving official answers to questions about the implementation of HIPAA. This is what that site says about parental rights:

What right does a minor have under HIPAA to claim his or her own privilege to deny access to records under HIPAA? If the minor does not want parents or others to have access to his or her records, can the provider refuse to provide the records to the parents?

The short answer to this question is that if the health care provider or facility concurs with the minor that the parents should not have access to his or her treatment records, the minor has a good chance of precluding parents from access to the records or granting access to others.

What is the authority for this “short answer”? The official regulations (45 CFR 164.502(g)(3)(ii)(C)—this is the number of the rule for those keeping score at home) say that unless state law requires a doctor to disclose the medical information to the parent, the doctor may unilaterally refuse to give the information to the parent if the doctor’s decision is “in the exercise of professional judgment.” This section is not limited to cases of suspected abuse or neglect. In fact, there is a separate section of the federal regulations which covers such cases.

It is important to see the role that the wishes of the child play in this situation. The question asks whether a child may keep his medical records a secret. But the regulation gives the doctor unilateral control to withhold information from parents. No request from the child is required to trigger the doctor’s power to keep parents in the dark. It is the doctor’s judgment alone that allows him to withhold medical results from parents.

Be sure to read the entire atricle at Parentalrights.org. We must stay vigilant in protecting parental rights before they are taken away. As this article shows the threat from within the US is just as great as the threat from international law. Amending the constitution is the best way to assure that parental rights remain fundamental.

To learn more about what you can do to help protect parental rights visit: