[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 15 Introduced in House (IH)]

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;
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;
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 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
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that the President should promptly 
seek the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification of the 
Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations 
General Assembly with the support of the United States on November 20, 
1989.

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