H-3132.1  _______________________________________________

                     HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4033

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      54th Legislature     1995 Regular Session

By Representatives Koster, Stevens, McMorris, Crouse, Campbell, Sherstad, Beeksma, D. Schmidt, Lambert, Smith, Thompson, Fuhrman, Backlund, Pelesky, L. Thomas, Boldt, Johnson, Casada, Hargrove, Sterk, Goldsmith, Mulliken, Hymes, McMahan, Talcott and Carrell

Read first time 05/01/95.  Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services.

Requesting the U.S. Senate to reject adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

    TO THE HONORABLE BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, In November 1989, the United Nations adopted the "Convention on the Rights of the Child"; and

    WHEREAS, In February 1995, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations signed such Convention with the present intention by the President of the United States to submit such Convention to the United States Senate for ratification and adoption; and

    WHEREAS, Such Convention unequivocally abrogates and unmistakably usurps inalienable and manifest parental rights and prerogatives; and  

    WHEREAS, Such Convention is damaging to inalienable parental rights inasmuch as it would divest from parents the judgment and discretion over their children's health care decisions by allowing children to unilaterally and independently make all medical decisions and be provided health care at government cost without parental knowledge or consent; and

    WHEREAS, Such Convention cripples inalienable parental rights inasmuch as it would divest parents of the ability to educate, instruct, or even guide their children in religious teachings or affiliations of their determination or choice and would replace parental best judgment with the child's judgment; and

    WHEREAS, Such Convention incapacitates inalienable parental rights inasmuch as it wrongly vests in children an exclusive and inviolate right of privacy to be exercised against all others including parents; and

    WHEREAS,  Such Convention is destructive of inalienable parental rights inasmuch as it would require parents to implement childhood developmental standards, physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social, that would be set by the government thereby giving an unfettered imprimatur to civil service bureaucrats the discretion to determine and regulate the fundamental values of family life; and

    WHEREAS, Such Convention is pernicious of inalienable parental rights inasmuch as it would create a civil service bureaucracy for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment, and prosecution of any individual, especially parents, who allegedly violate such Convention created rights;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that Congress

assembled recognize that United States Senate adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child would unequivocally and unmistakably abrogate and usurp inalienable parental rights and prerogatives for all the reasons stated in this Memorial and that, inasmuch as such Convention is damaging, crippling, incapacitating, destructive, and pernicious to these inalienable rights, the Senate of the United States reject its adoption.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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