H-0897.1  _______________________________________________

                     HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4003

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Representatives Koster, Mulliken, Lambert, Sherstad, Sterk, Backlund, Smith, Boldt, McMorris, Johnson and Bush

Read first time 01/23/97.  Referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

Requesting that Senate adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Children be denied.

    TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. 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" (the Convention); and

    WHEREAS, In February 1995, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations signed the Convention, with the intent that the President submit it to the United States Senate for ratification; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention inappropriately and unmistakably infringes upon parental rights in that it divests from parents the ability to decide what health care options are in the best interest of their children; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention grants to children the authority to independently make all medical decisions without parental consent and provides that the cost of care is to be borne by the government; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention hinders parents' ability to educate their children in religious matters and would replace parental best judgment with the child's judgment; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention grants to civil service bureaucrats the authority to impose upon parents standards regarding children's physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social development; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention violates parents' fundamental rights to direct the upbringing of their children, by vesting in children an exclusive right of privacy that may be exercised against all others, including parents; and

    WHEREAS, The Convention improperly intrudes into the sphere of parental authority by creating a civil service bureaucracy for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment, and prosecution of any individual, including parents, who allegedly violate the "rights" bestowed by the Convention;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully and fervently pray that Senate adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child be denied.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable William J. 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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