The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, the PEN American Center, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, and the ACS New York Lawyer Chapter presented:

Who Will Speak for the Child? Human Rights at Home and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Roughly a year ago, the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy (ACS) published Catherine Powell's Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration. In this plan for reaffirming and implementing the US commitment to human rights, many recommendations were made, including a call for "the ratification, accompanied by fully adequate implementing legislation, of important human rights treaties to which the United States is not yet a party." One of the treaties mentioned by name is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the CRC in 1989 and it was instituted as international law in 1990. As the 20th anniversary of its UN adoption passes, the US and Somalia remain the only two nations party to the UN that have not ratified this document.

In their vulnerability and lack of political power, children occupy a unique status in our society and, arguably, are most in need of safeguards to ensure their protection. Acknowledging these realities, the CRC was intended to be a comprehensive, legally-binding human rights treaty for the protection of children irrespective of national boundaries. What may be done to build momentum for CRC ratification? What role can lawyers and policymakers play? What role can writers and the arts play? In the legal and political struggle for human rights, writers have awakened the consciences of nations and reminded citizens of the values that undergird rights, a core belief of the PEN American Center. This panel brought together writers, legal scholars, and advocates for an evening of law and literature.

The panel included introductory remarks from Philip Alston, co-chair of the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and featured:

• Deborah Ellis, award-winning Author of Off to War, The Breadwinner Trilogy, and Three Wishes, among others.

• Uzodinma Iweala, award-winning Author of Beasts of No Nation
• Laura W. Murphy, President, Laura Murphy & Associates, LLC
• Walter Dean Myers, award-winning Author of Dope Sick, Amiri & Odette, and Sunrise Over Fallujah, among others
• Jonathan Todres, Associate Professor, Georgia State University Law School
• Moderator, Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, New York Law School

6:30 pm-8:30 pm
Monday, December 7, 2009
New York University Law School, Tishman Auditorium at Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.S. played a lead role in drafting. Some human rights scholars and advocates argue that the U.S. has operated under a double standard in that it has promoted a set of universal human rights standards abroad that it has proved less willing to apply at home, citing U.S. policy on the use of torture as a prominent example. This panel focused on what can be done to ensure that the U.S. fulfills its international human rights obligations.

Panelists included: