IV

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 15

Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the need for the President

to seek the Senate’s advice and consent to ratification of the United

Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 6, 1993

Mr. SANDERS (for himself, Mr. ANDREWS of Maine, Mr. BRYANT, Mr. COLEMAN, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. DELLUMS, Mr. EVANS, Mr.

FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr. HEFNER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. JOHNSTON of Florida, Mrs. KENNELLY, Mr.

MCCLOSKEY, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. MARTINEZ, Ms.

MEEK, Mr. MFUME, Mrs. MINK, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr.

RANGEL, Mr. ROEMER, Mrs. SCHROEDER, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. SHAYS,

Mr. STARK, Mr. TRAFICANT, Mrs. UNSOELD, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr.

PALLONE, and Mr. FOGLIETTA) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the need

for the President to seek the Senate’s advice and consent

to ratification of the United Nations Convention on the

Rights of the Child.

Whereas in 1990, 1 in 5 children in the United States lived

in poverty;

Whereas during the 1980s the United States had the worst

child poverty rate among Western industrialized nations

surveyed in a 1991 study;
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Whereas it is estimated that every night in the United States

at least 100,000 children go to sleep homeless;

Whereas 1 in 10 infants, and 1 in 5 African-American infants, living in the United States has no routine source

of health care;

Whereas the United States has the world’s largest Gross National Product, yet American children rank below the top

15 nations in regard to their health and well-being;

Whereas in 1989, the infant mortality rate for the United

States ranked 19th in the world, behind Singapore,

Spain, and Ireland;

Whereas from 1980 through 1988, the number of babies born

in the United States with low birthweights ranked the

United States 29th in the world;

Whereas in immunizing its children the United States ranks

17th in the world;

Whereas in the next 4 years, approximately 144,000 babies

will die in the United States before their 1st birthday;

Whereas the National Commission on Children has declared

that ‘‘Every child in America needs an excellent education . . . yet approximately 40 percent of the Nation’s

children are at risk of school failure’’ and ‘‘American students continue to lag behind their counterparts in many

developed and developing nations in standardized measures of reading, math, and science’’;

Whereas an estimated 407,000 children in the United States,

almost a 50 percent increase since 1986, depend on an

overwhelmed, inadequate foster care system;

Whereas in the United States, 2,600,000 children were reported to be abused and neglected in 1991;
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Whereas it is estimated that 1,800,000 teenagers were victims of violent crimes in the United States in 1988;

Whereas the Supreme Court has never fully articulated the

range of rights to be accorded to children under the

United States Constitution or fully articulated the manner in which the Constitution is applicable to minors;

Whereas the positive futures of our families, communities,

and Nation are dependent on the full and healthy development of our children;

Whereas the United States actively participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of

the Child and was the main proponent of many of the

Convention’s articles;

Whereas in November 1989, the United States and other

members of the General Assembly of the United Nations

unanimously endorsed the Convention on the Rights of

the Child, which codified society’s responsibilities to children in setting minimum standards for survival, health,

education, certain protection against violence and exploitation, and respect for the child’s dignity;

Whereas as of May 1992, 117 countries had become state

parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child by

ratification or accession, and 29 others had signed the

Convention indicating their intention to ratify the Convention in the future;

Whereas the United States is the only Western industrialized

Nation which has neither signed nor ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the United States

joins Iraq, South Africa, Libya, and Cambodia as 1 of

fewer than 30 of the 178 member states of the United
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Nations which neither is a state party to the Convention

nor has signed it;

Whereas the issue of children’s rights and their well-being is

important both to the United States and the world at

large;

Whereas it is essential that the United States sign and ratify

the Convention on the Rights of the Child and begin to

implement the Convention’s legal standards in order to

improve and protect the lives of children in this country

and abroad and for our Nation to be credible as a proponent of human rights;

Whereas at the World Summit for Children in September

1990, the United States signed the World Declaration on

the Survival, Protection and Development of Children,

which included a commitment to ‘‘work to promote the

earliest possible ratification and implementation on the

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’’;

and

Whereas the House of Representatives passed a resolution

during the 101st Congress urging the President to seek

the consent of the Senate to ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but such action having

not occurred, it is necessary that the Congress implore

the President to take action on the Convention: Now,

therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the

3 President should promptly seek the advice and consent of

4 the Senate to ratification of the Convention on the Rights

5 of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General As-
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1 sembly with the support of the United States on

2 November 20, 1989.

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