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America May Need to Evaluate the Rights of Children

Updated: Nov 6, 2020

The United States is the only country in the United Nations that is not fully bound to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

credit to Daria Shevtsova
US is failing its children and should be bound to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are the future of the country. Anything short of full protection of this vulnerable group is a disservice to the children and the country’s well-being moving forward.

Photo credit to Namo Deet

28 states permit life without parole for those under 18.

  • I find this atrocious. Life sentences for minors are cruel and inhumane. This practice must end.

  • Life without parole violates various the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 37 of the Convention explicitly states that no child be imprisoned without the chance of release. The United States is the only country in the United Nations that is not fully bound to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; this is disgusting and must change.

  • Does not include decades-long sentences that are, effectively, life without parole.

    • This is a blemish on our country. A 90-year sentence has the same effect as life without parole. The practice of handing out sentences that will clearly extend past a lifetime is unjust. Young people must not grow up in jail as the experience will harm their mental health for life.


Photo credit to Rich Legg

Children in Adult Prisons


Children released from adult facilities are 36 times more likely to die by suicide.

  • It is horrendous that children are mixed with adults; our youth deserve better.

  • The Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama, Birmingham found the risk of sexual abuse increases fivefold if children are placed in adult holding facilities.

  • Children must be protected. Placing them in prison with adults violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child; I call for this practice to end.


Photo credit to John Moore

Children Ripped from Parents at

Southern Border


Goes against the best interest of the child, protection of CRC.

  • Family separation creates chronic stress in children for life. Caregivers are the youths' principle source of comfort; being wrenched from these loved ones by officers with guns as both parties sob is inhumane and clearly against a child’s best interest.

  • Family separation is reprehensible and has damaged our youth’s mental health forever.

  • I worked to reunite separated parents with loved ones when the policy became public in April 2018. I can’t even begin to imagine the terror felt and harm done to these border-crossers.

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