One of the newest focuses of human rights activity involves the largest part of the world population–children. This issue of Human Rights explores the state of that activity and some of the tensions that occur when balancing the rights of children against the rights of their parents or the community as a whole.

The world has been slow to recognize that children are not chattel, but human beings, entitled to most of the same basic rights as the rest of us. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child is a treaty that has been ratified by every country except the United States and Somalia. Somalia at least has an excuse: it has no functioning government and is therefore unable to ratify the treaty. The U.S. Senate, on the other hand, has failed to take action because an organized lobby representing ultraconservative religious interests claims that the American family will disintegrate if the fundamental rights of children are recognized by our government. Susan Kilbourne, the research director of IRR’s study of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has provided an overview of the Covention and its place in American policy-making. South Africa provides a study in contrast to American hesitancy in formalizing children’s rights. Indeed, it may be the only country to include specific rights for children in its constitution, as pointed out by Professor Barbara Bennett Woodhouse. She investigates the reason for this proactive approach in South Africa and concludes that since children were so much a part of the fight against apartheid that they have been recognized fully after its demise.

Children’s health rights are introduced in an article on condoms in the public schools by Catherine Weiss and Sherrill Cohen, both associated with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. They discuss the judicial acceptance of condom disbursement programs in the public schools and the legal underpinnings thereof. In another article, Miriam Fleming also investigates a parent’s right to refuse treatment for a child’s health care and the state’s parens patriae obligations. Finally, Bruce Wilder looks to the past in search of the reasoning for statutes involving reproductive law. He then projects to the future and offers a nonbiological approach to the circumstances that will inevitably arise with the advent of new reproductive technologies. He argues for a focus on legally significant acts that cement a parent-child relationship rather than a strictly biological one.

A child’s right to a stable home was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in the well-known Baby Richard case, but a Supreme Court review was denied. In that case, the Illinois Supreme Court awarded custody of a child who had spent all of his life with his adoptive parents and brother to his biological father. Diane Bonina and Ruth Bahe-Jachna, who represented the adoptive parents, provide a detailed view of the legal rights at issue and suggest how they should be resolved to advance the best interests of the child. Thoughts about a child’s rights in the context of divorcing parents are provided in an opinion piece by Barbara Handschu, together with a Children’s Bill of Rights adopted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Stable home environments are also examined in Jeffrey Gibson’s article, which grew out of a recent IRR report arguing for equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in the area of adoption. This report helped further the passage of a resolution supporting lesbian and gay adoption by the entire ABA at the 1999 Midyear Meeting.

The human rights concerns explored in this issue will be the subject of debate and experimentation long into the future. We hope this introduction to some of the current issues will help our readers participate in the debate, and the policy decisions, of the future with knowledge and insight.

Other Important Matters

On the administrative side, the Annual Meeting is scheduled in Atlanta from August 5 through August 10. Highlights include the annual Thurgood Marshall Dinner on August 7th at Morehouse College. The Annual Meeting program includes “Does Mediation Cut Off Minority Access to the Courts?”; “What If Brown v. Board of Education Had Been Mediated?”; a Presidential Showcase Program entitled “To Protect and Serve: Mandating Human Rights Compliance by Police Officers”; and “Breaking the Most Vulnerable Branch: Do Rising Threats to Judicial Independence Prelude the Process in Capital Cases?”.

For long-term planning, please mark your calendars for the New York Annual Meeting in the year 2000, where we are planning a showcase program on the history of the Bill of the Rights, as well as the follow-up Annual Meeting in London, where we are planning a major program on international human rights that will be cosponsored by the Law Society, the Bar Council, and several others. It never hurts to start planning early. One final reminder, renewal notes will be out soon. Please renew your memberships and encourage your friends to join too.

—Walter H. White, Jr.