Human Rights at Home and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Roughly a year ago, the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy (ACS) published Catherine Powell’sHuman Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration.  In this plan for reaffirming and implementing the US commitment to human rights, many recommendations were made, including a call for “the ratification, accompanied by fully adequate implementing legislation, of important human rights treaties to which the United States is not yet a party.” 

One of the treaties mentioned by name is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).   The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the CRC in 1989 and it was instituted as international law in 1990.  As the 20th anniversary of its UN adoption passes, the US and Somalia remain the only two nations party to the UN that have not ratified this document.

In their vulnerability and lack of political power, children occupy a unique status in our society and, arguably, are most in need of safeguards to ensure their protection.  Acknowledging these realities, the CRC was intended to be a comprehensive, legally-binding human rights treaty for the protection of children irrespective of national boundaries.  What may be done to build momentum for CRC ratification?  What role can lawyers and policymakers play?  What role can writers and the arts play?  In the legal and political struggle for human rights, writers have awakened the consciences of nations and reminded citizens of the values that undergird rights, a core belief of the PEN American Center.  This panel will bring together writers, legal scholars, and advocates for an evening of law and literature.

The panel will feature:

Moderator, Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Laura W. Murphy, President, Laura Murphy & Associates, LLC

Walter Dean Myers, award-winning Author of Dope Sick, Amiri & Odette, and Sunrise Over Fallujah, among others

Jonathan Todres, Associate Professor, Georgia State University Law School, Comments on UN Debate on the Rights of the Child

The panel will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. and will end at 7:45 p.m., followed by a wine and cheese reception.  This event is free and open to the public.

6:30 pm-8:30 pm

Monday, December 7, 2009

New York University Law School, Tishman Auditorium at Vanderbilt Hall

40 Washington Square South

New York, NY 10012

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals. Our mission is to promote the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law. For more information about the organization, which has established student chapters at more than 170 law schools around the country and lawyer chapters in 31 cities, please visit www.acslaw.org.

PEN American Center is the U.S. branch of the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization. International PEN was founded in 1921 in direct response to the ethnic and national divisions that contributed to the First World War. PEN American Center was founded in 1922 and is the largest of the 144 PEN centers in 101 countries that together compose International PEN, an association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship. For more information, please see www.pen.org.

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ACS takes no position on particular legal or policy initiatives, and all expressions of opinion in ACS publications are those of the authors.

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