Will you and your organization help us
protect the human rights of the millions of children here in the
USA?
Organizations like Amnesty
International and LULAC National, the
Cesar Chavez foundation, Border Ambassadors and
Human Rights Watch, Pax Cristi and
Child Rights Campaign are already partnering with
and helping us. Would your organization like to be added to the
list? If we have the will to protect the rights of others...we have
the power.
The mission of Rights of the
Child USA campaign is to promote the ratification by the
United States of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child. This is
an international treaty, yet twenty years later, with the exception
of the failed state of Somalia, the United States is the only
country in the world that has refused to guarantee our children the
most basic human rights that are in force around the world.
This November 20th marks the 20th
anniversary of the Rights of the Child. There are events across the
country to highlight this cause. Here in Texas, we will be holding
a press conference at the Federal Building at the US Senators'
offices on Friday, the 20th. On Saturday the 21st, we will be
holding a rally on the Capitol steps in Austin. followed by a
march.
We have a website here.
www.rightsofthechild.com On this website is a petition
developed for us by Amnesty International directed to the US Senate
to ratify the 1989 treaty. It will take 67 of the 100 Senators to
get the treaty ratified so that the millions of children here in the
USA will have the same human rights that are recognized in the other
193 countries around the world.
If you and/or your organization would
like to partner with us in this effort, here's what we ask that you
do.
1. Go
www.rightsofthechild.com
2. Sign the Amnesty International
petition.
3. Sign up to represent your state in
the 50 state campaign to reach out to your Senators.
4. Circulate the website and petition
to your members and friends and in your social networks like
Facebook and Twitter.
5. Provide us with a logo and link for
your organization that we can post on our "Partners" page.
6. Link
www.rightsofthechild.comto
your website...and add our logo.
7. Please note the events page and
please promote and support the event nearest you.
Below is the press release that we have
sent out to our media friends. Please help us help the children by
getting the word out to your media contacts, whether local, state,
national or even international. Let's make Rights of the
Child in the USA a national priority.
We have the power. Let's exercise it
on behalf of the children...
Rights of the Child USA
Border Ambassadors
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why hasn't the US
ratified UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC)?
CONTACT:Rights of the
Child USA, Jay
Johnson Castro, 830 734 8636,
jay@villadelrio.com
AUSTIN TX.November
20 marks the 20th
anniversary of the most universally ratified of all UN human
rights treaties with 193 members. Two UN member nations have
abstained from ratification to date: the United States and the
failed state of Somalia. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice
has recently broached the subject of U.S. ratification, and
Congressman John Lewis (D-Georgia) has introduced H.R. 416 which
presses several human-rights issues, among them Senate
ratification of Rights of the Child. It is time to correct this
failure.
Rights of the Child USA
is a coalition of organizations
representing the interests of religious, education, health care,
humanitarian, labor, legal, and social service communities
nationwide with a focus on this single goal. Their activities will
be reported at
www.rightsofthechild.com.
The
story we highlight today is
the reality behind our
national failure to join the world community
o f good will in this action. It
is this story that we ask you, the press, to highlight over the
coming weeks. It encompasses complex issues, each deserving critical
attention to help the American people understand their
responsibility to act.
A
few political organizations have succeeded in portraying the CRC as
a threat to our families and our national sovereignty.
Two decades of a Republican
Congress, inspired by the largesse of such organizations as the
Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum,
Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and the National
Center for Home Education, have effectively prevented the U.S. from
joining -- indeed, leading -- the rest of the world in this
essential initiative.
CRC
simply provides guidelines to establish the basic respect a child
deserves from all adults, whether relatives, teachers, or strangers.
It has no power to require parents to alter their own beliefs;
rather it seeks to create a climate in which any child can achieve
his/her potential through a loving society.
Because the treaty has been
operational in most nations since 1990, a wealth of information is
available to show its effect on participants
(see links below).
We invite you, the Fourth Estate, to make November 2009 a special
month for the child.
Below are some questions we ask you to explore, with research links.
We thank you for honoring your essential role by addressing the
understandable fears of some Americans, thus lighting our path
toward this important decision and helping us to reimagine our
country's priorities about childhood.
