4 min read

Column: The Rights of Kids Who Die

By Corinne B.

How the fuck do we make our country care about children? Some will argue that we do care; they may list all sorts of examples of personal experience or list internet diatribes to support their righteousness. But when it comes down to it –  whether we actually give a fuck about children – the answer is an absolute “NO” for one simple reason: The United States is one of two countries that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child(UNCRC)

Now you may think, “what does one piece of bureaucracy matter?” The bureaucracy in question is an international treaty (UNCRC) that establishes global standards to protect children's rights, including their right to education, health care, and a decent standard of living.

This treaty first took shape in the form of a Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Adopted in 1959, this document established children's rights to protection, education, health care, shelter, and good nutrition. By the 1990’s the UNCRC convention was adopted, along with this declaration. It's become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history; only the United States and Somalia have failed to ratify. 

Living in the “greatest country in the world” we must already have this bill, or a version of it, ourselves, right? Maybe that's why the US is one of two countries that has refused to ratify it? NO. The U.S. has no children's bill of rights although it's assumed that children are protected under the 14th amendment. But children are not a protected class under employment discrimination either. In fact the only listed protection I could find was under the Fair Housing Act.  

What is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)?

So what does the Convention on the Rights of a Child actually mean? To be honest with you, it is a LONG document with 54 articles included. I will not bore you and detail them but perhaps I can highlight the ones that shed a light on our own failings as a country. 

To start, let’s learn whothe UN considers a child. It’s fairly basic: anyone under the age of 18. Trayvon Martin was 17 at the time of his murder by a rogue volunteer neighborhood watchperson; he was a child by UN standards. Tamir Rice was 12 at the time of his murder by a 26-year-old Cleveland police officer; he also was considered a child by UN standards. We do not need to argue semantics on appearances or body language. It is clearly stated in Article 1. THEY WERE CHILDREN.

Let’s jump down now to Article 6:

  •  States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.
  • States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice had the RIGHT to life. How often is that right stolen from brown and black children like them?  in the countries we deem need “freedom”. 

There are more than50 Articles, and the U.S. could not make it to No. 6 without having blood on our collective hands. 

We kill our children like lambs to slaughter. Those we can not murder, we torture using cruel devices from the colonial foundation of the U.S. I talk, of course, about the separation of children from their family of origin. 

From 1492 untilnow, black and brown children have been separatedfrom their families either by slave trade, Indian residential schools or by the carceral system preying on black and immigrant families. 

Now, to Article 8: 

  • States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.

Imagine if this Convention could be used retroactively, if we could hold to account those who have irreversibly harmed generations of children. 

It’s no wonder our country has not ratified this treaty since its introduction in the 1990s. In 1995, the U.S. signed it but it was not sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification. It died there. In 2006, former president Barack Obama was quoted saying the lack of ratification was “embarrassing.” That’s as far as he ever went to amend the issue. 

As of May 2024, the U.S. and Somalia have not ratified the rights of children. 

Reading the Articles is like reading a laundry list of failures and crimes our country has committed - ast and present.

Even if our government could get it together long enough to sign and ratify this bill of rights for children, I can confidently say it would be a hollow gesture, just more signatures meant to pacify the mob. 

To actually care about children would require fundamental change in our government and society. A change that is directly at odds with our nation and its capitalistic values. Our country is, unfortunately, driven by the need to profit off of every action we take; including our children’s existence.

For me, the most poignant Article listed in the Convention was Article 31:

  • States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

The simplest of rights – the right to play. I think about the generations of Palestinian children who have been denied this right since the creation of the Israeli state and, most recently intensified in October of 2023. 

I think about the children of Uvalde who were denied their right to rest and play by an 18-year-old gunman who was enabled by the Texas Department of Public Safety. 

I dream of a world where children have the right to play.

I leave you with this excerpt from Langston Huges poem.

Kids Who Die
Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies'll be lost in a swamp.
Or a prison grave, or the potter's field,
Or the rivers where you're drowned like Leibknecht.
But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die