HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 95-4661, by Representatives Koster, Stevens, McMahan, Buck, Mulliken, Hymes, Pelesky, McMorris, Campbell, Benton, Goldsmith, Crouse, Backlund, Sheahan, Sherstad, Lambert, Beeksma, Smith, Fuhrman, Pennington and Boldt

     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 the Convention with the present intention by the President of these United States to submit the Convention to the United States Senate for ratification and adoption; and

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

     WHEREAS, The 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, The 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 substitute and replace parental best judgment with the child's judgment; and

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

     WHEREAS, The 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 Convention-created rights;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington hereby declare that the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child would unequivocally and unmistakably abrogate and usurp inalienable parental rights and prerogatives inasmuch as the Convention is damaging, crippling, incapacitating, destructive, and pernicious to inalienable parental rights for all of the reasons stated herein.

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