Specific Purpose: To explain the erosion of parental rights in America, and what is to be done to protect them.
Central Idea: The Convention on the Rights of a Child is a threat to the American Family unit.
Title: Parental Rights and the Convention on the Rights of a Child.
Organizational Pattern: Monroe's Motivated Sequence
Speaker to generate: Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Introduction
I. To start, let me ask you some questions. These questions involve a basic element in all culture. It is hardly thought of as important, except perhaps a few times a year on holidays, but in reality it is the heart beat of the traditional American culture.
A. Do you know any one who is a parent? Are you a parent? Do you have parents?
B.According to Richard T. Schaeffer in his textbook Sociology: A Brief Introduction, “ The socialiszation of children is essential to the maitenance of any culture. Consequently, parenthood is one of the most important and(most demanding)social roles in the United States” (Schaefer 298). And according to the World Year Book, “Parents have the responsibility of protecting and caring for their children and gradually teaching them to care for themselves” (Field). But in the present world, rights of those in this extremely crucial role are on the edge of a knife.
C.After researching this subject, and having been part of a family, I can assure you that the information presented by me today is true.
D.In this speech I will cover the following points of interest: What is the Convention on the Rights of a Child and what would the impact be if America ratified it? And what is to be done in defense of the American family unit?
First—the Convention on the Rights of a Child and its effects.
Body
II. Need The Convention on the Rights of a Child is a United Nations treaty brought into being in the late 1980s.
“You may ask, How could a treaty directly affect internal decision-making by American families? We generally think of treaties as agreements affecting international relations between countries. The U.N., however, has initiated treaties that not only affect international relations, but also the domestic relations of member nations as well. These treaties, sometimes called conventions, require member nations that ratify the treaty to implement the requirements as binding law or rules”(Smith, Michael). The Convention on the Rights of a Child requires the countries who have ratified it to follow the requirements, report their enforcement of them, to the committee. This allows the courts to intervene whenever they deem it necessary, whether the parents are fit or not.The committee is ten people picked for their competence in the field of children's rights. They are only subject to themselves. One hundred and ninety one countries have ratified this treaty. The United States stands alone against the common sentiment that government intrusion into the home is acceptable and worthy.
A. Ramification: To illustrate the negative effects on the freedom of the families under this international umbrella, we will look at several countries who have ratified it whole heartedly. In Italy, an infant's name was changed against the parent's will from Friday to Gregory. The reason this was is because, according to Philip Pullella for Rueters News Network, “The appeals court ruled against Friday because it recalled the servile savage in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe and because superstitious Italians consider Friday an unlucky day.” In Belgium, Euthanasia is a fact of life. According to the Telegraph, a United Kingdom news-source, “ Euthanasia is currently permitted on infants and more than half of the Belgian babies who die before they are 12 months old have been killed by deliberate medical intervention. In 16 per cent of cases parental consent was not considered” (Waterfield).
B. There is a need for American citizens to prepare for the safe guarding of the family unit.
C.Pointing: If this treaty is ratified, then, according to our Constitution the courts must enforce it. According Article Six Clause 2 of our Constitution: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the Untied States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof, ad all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be supreme Law of the Land, and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding” (Dye 97).
D. A treaty made by the United States is a Supreme Law of the land, and must be treated as such. If precautionary measures against the Convention—or treaty—on the Rights of a Child are not taken, then parental authority and responsibility would be jeopardized in America.
But there is a way to keep this from happening.
III. Satisfaction -The only way to secure our parental rights is to secure them in our foundation. The Constitution needs to have a provision clearly explaining the fundamental right that a fit parent has to raise their child.
A. Proof of workability: This 'Parental Rights' amendment would be similar to the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights lists the freedoms of the American people, their fundamental rights. The Parental Rights amendment, if cemented in the Constitution, would solidify and define the right of parents.
B.The Parental Rights amendment would create a fence of protection for parents, their families, and their children.
C. Parentalrights.org has already crafted an Amendment on such a topic. It is three short sections:
“SECTION 1
The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.
SECTION 2
Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.
SECTION 3
No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article” (ParentalRights.org).
Now for my second to last point: What this solution would mean for you.
IV. Visualization: If the Parental rights amendment is established in the Constitution, then the rights of parents and children will be protected by the Government against foreign policies that encroach upon the rights of the American family.
A. It would allow you to posses the right to bear responsibility for the care, raising, and nurturing of your children, free from the fear of intrusion by those who may not have your child’s best interests at heart.
B.If this Amendment is not established in the Constitution, then the Convention on the Rights of a Child is bound to eventually wreak havockin the American home through Government intervention between fit, loving parents and their young, maturing children.
And now my last point: what can you, personally, do to help?
Conclusion
V. Action – At parentalrights.org there is a definitive action you can take,
A. Once again, the Parental Rights Amendment would make the Convention on the Rights of a Child impossible for the United States to ratify.
B. If you go to this sight, parentalrights.org, there is a button that says, sign the petition.
C. This petition will help further the Parental Rights Amendment into becoming a reality, and not just a dream.
D. The rights of the family are at stake. The Convention on the Rights of a Child is endangering our families as we know them today. Should we stand and watch, or do something to help protect them? Which choice will you make?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grytsJW2A9g&feature=player_embedded Start at minute 1:04
Works Cited
“Family.”
The World Book Encyclopedia.1969. Volume 7. Print.
Dye, Thomas and Bartholomew H. Sparrow.
Politics in America Eight Ed.2009. Pearson Education, Inc. Print.
ParentalRights.org.
parentalrights.org.
P.R.Org. Updated Date N/A. Web. Date Accessed: 19 April 2011.
Pullella, Philip. “What to Name a Child? Int Italy a Court can Decide.”
Reuters.
Rueters. 18 December 2007. Web. 19 April 2011.
Schaefer, Richard T.
Sociology: A Brief Introduction.
McGraw-Hill. 2009. Print.
Waterfield, Bruno. “Teens Need Right to Medically Assisted Suicide.”
The Telegraph.
Telelgraph Media Group, Limited. 26 March 2008. Web.
"U.N. treaty might weaken families."
Washington Times[Washington, DC] 11 Jan. 2009: M17.
Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.