Posted on 01/10/2009 6:11:07 PM PST by shielagolden
HOME-SCHOOLING: U.N. treaty might weaken families
Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (Courtesy of hslda.org) One of the issues American families could face this year is the ramifications from a treaty called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
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. On Nov. 20, 1989, the U.N. adopted the CRC and submitted it for ratification to the member nations. It has been ratified by 193 nations - the United States is one of the few countries that has not ratified it.
The ratification process requires a two-thirds vote by the U.S. Senate. On Feb. 16, 1995, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., signed the CRC on behalf of the United States. The CRC, however, has never been sent to the Senate for ratification because there is insufficient support to pass it. Due to the recent election, however, there are rumblings from Capitol Hill that there will be an effort to seek ratification of the CRC during the next congressional cycle.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
One of these days, the Americans still left in this country are going to get fed up and pay this rats’ nest a visit. America is a sovereign nation. We don’t need this crap from those losers at the Useless Nations.
Is anyone really surprised?
a package of 34 treaties, all of which were ratified by a show of hands — no recorded vote.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a325b3f5d31.htm
Homeschooling ping
Hillary Rodham Clinton one world Goverment ,Hillary Rodham Clinton is a strong supporter of the treaty,
I don't mean to be pessimistic, but what's the point of even intentionally having children if they are going to be turned into mindless liberal drones by the schools and the media? Homeschooling was the only method of teaching children the Christian and conservative way and that looks like it may not even be an option.
This is so disturbing on so many levels. I fear for my future grandchildren. I am past childbearing age, but have raised a reliable conservative son. I fear for his future and the future of his children.
When is enough going to be enough? When are conservatives going to fight back against this tide of insanity and marxism?
It’s long past time for the US to dump the UN. The UN has outlived its usefulness and has extended its reach into areas never intended for it.
I think a nice new headquarters in...say...Belgium would be nice.
And someone else can pay their bills.
The UN wants your children...globalism uber alles!
I don’t give a **it, I wouldn’t follow it anyway, they can’t enforce it, and it is an illigitimate law!
~isn’t is what I meant to say~
never,never,never,never,never,never,never,never,never,
never,never,never,never,never,never,never,never,never.
This is a hill I'm willing to die on.
“When is enough going to be enough? When are conservatives going to fight back against this tide of insanity and marxism?”
Asa some from a Jewish background, may I suggest not waiting until too late to get proactive? Also, sooner or later, you have to decide at what point freedom is more important than anything, even life.
Had the German Jews not meekly submitted, they would either have been left alone or at least had the satisfaction of taking their enemies with them.
Make no mistake - both the HillaBeast and Obama are Saul Alinsky style Marxists. Regarding their political opponents, either most likely would give a “kill” command with pleasure if it could be justified.
Do remember that the use of the soap box and the ballot box, so far, has kept America’s citizenry from needing the cartridge box.
May it always so continue.
The Feds will impose it just like the IRS imposes the tax system. The will and spirit of most Americans has been irreparably broken I fear.
There are millions of Americans left. They are awakening and seeing what it going on. Never underestimate the power of 50 million patriotic angry Americans trying to save their heritage and country. They don't have to resort to violence. There are many ways to fight back. Take 50 million people and have them refuse to pay taxes, take their children out of public school, small businesses refuse to pay taxes withdraw all money from banks. Then the assh**es in DC would pay attention. They would have no choice. If it gets really bad, there is no other option unless you appease and lose this country forever. I fear we are way past getting results by writing letters to Congressmen. I pray to God that I'm wrong.
Hillary Rodham Clinton one world Goverment
She is no better than zer0, just not quite as totally *red*
I doubt it. They're too few.
Scary! Treaties superceed the constitution so it shouldn’t be a surprise that marxist know that too.
On Plymouth Rock is the inscription, “May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our republic throughout the world.”
The idea of freedom is surely the essence of America, and it will never die.
I only pray that you are correct.
Manditory service in Obama’s proposed youth corps will be that means by which the principle taught by home schooled parents will be undone.
How are they going to station enforcers inside homes 24/7?
Would that it were so, but I doubt it this cycle. Democrats are even better at UN-sucking than RINO's.
It’s not the homeschooling per se but the absence from the local indoctrination center they would have a problem with (though I had heard of a plan to have live-in schools be the norm). But most of us homeschool in order to PREVENT that indoctrination, which would be much more difficult if you have to do it in parallel.
The Cubans did it with block committees.
The East German Stasi's did it with informers -- sometimes willing, oftimes not. (Remember, they got Olympic skater and medalist Katrina Witt to inform on other Olympians.)
The Chinese do it with neighborhood grandmothers, who are used to finger and nail women who are pregnant a second time.
And always, there are the firing squads following these guys around, ready to drop the hammer on "problem cases" who won't bow the neck and conform. That was Che Guevara's real job in revolutionary Cuba.
What Conservatives ? The only conservatives are the rich ones on the radio and selling books and appearing on television talk shows . As far as any conservatives that are in Positions of power to make a difference ,there are not ANY ! If there are any conservatives left they have been neutered
Treaties do NOT surperceed the Constitution.
Soap box - to be destroyed by the "Fairness Doctrine".
Ballot box - already destroyed by fraud (ACORN) and the unwillingness to address it.
America - quickly pushing beyond "that awkward stage" that Claire Wolfe wrote about.
Will homeschooling parents end up behind bars?
Appeals court tosses 1st sentence, orders new trial
By Bob Unruh
A German appeals court tossed out three-month jail terms issued to a mother and father who homeschool their children, but the ruling also ordered new trials that could leave the parents with similar penalties, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.
WND has reported extensively on the case against Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek of Archfeldt, Germany, who last summer received formal notices of their three-month sentences and issued appeals.
The 90-day sentences came about when Hesse State Prosecutor Herwig Muller appealed a lower court’s determination of fines for the family. The ruling had imposed fines of about 900 euros, or $1,200, for not sending their children to school
Muller, however, told the parents they shouldn’t worry about any fines, since he would “send them to jail,” the HSLDA reported.
(Story continues below)
Word reached the family, however, on Christmas Eve of the appeals court decision rejecting the prison sentences.
“We are relieved and grateful that the appeals court has set aside these harsh sentences,” Juergen Dudek said. “However, we know that this is not the end of the story since new trials have been ordered.”
While no new trial dates have been scheduled yet, Dudek reported the sentences were overturn on three grounds, including a technical error when Muller failed to pinpoint the crimes allegedly committed.
The higher court also cited a procedural decision that allowed an appeal only of the sentence, when the entire case should have been considered, and the lower court sentencing appeared to include some improper procedures.
“The latest measures being taken by the government against homeschoolers are designed to make us afraid and to give up,” he said. “The changes in laws to make it easier to take away children, and the more aggressive posture of the Jugendamt [state youth welfare offices] in trying to threaten parental custody demonstrate that the government is trying to intimidate and scare homeschoolers.
“We must not be afraid,” he said. “Fear saps our courage, our strength and our perspective. To win this fight we must stand firm and trust to the Lord to deliver us.”
He said the encouragement for the family from contacts with American and other international homeschoolers has been a blessing.
“The letters we receive, the phone calls and especially the prayers – we know people are interceding on our behalf make the difference. We are so grateful to our American and European brothers and sisters who are standing with us and encouraging us. Without their support in letters and prayers, I think it would be much harder for us,” he said.
Michael Donnelly, the HSLDA staff attorney who has worked extensively on a number of cases from within Germany and coordinates organization support for persecuted German homeschoolers, said that he was pleased the jail sentences were overturned.
But he warned, “a new trial could yield the same results, so we must continue to encourage and pray for these brave people standing against the powerful German government.”
He said German authorities appear to remain dedicated to stamping out what they have called “parallel societies.”
“There continue to be signs that the German government is cracking down on homeschooling families,” he reported. “A recent letter from one family in southern Germany contained threats from local school authorities that unless the family enrolled their children in school, they would seek fines in excess of 50,000 euros (nearly $70,000), jail time and the removal of custody of the children.”
He said such behavior “by a so-called Western democracy is unacceptable.”
“It is this kind of repression that is forcing families to flee Germany and to seek protection in other countries, like the Romeike family, who have applied for political asylum in the United States,” Donnelly said.
A newspaper reporter in Hesse, Harald Sagawe, said the parents previously paid fines, because “they did not send their children to school, for religious reasons.”
He continued, “The parents, Christians who closely follow the Bible, teach their children themselves. Two years ago the court had also dealt with the Dudeks. That case, dealing with the payment of a fine, had been dropped.”
Judge Peter Hobbel, who eventually imposed the fines, criticized school officials for refusing to answer the family’s request for approval of their “private school.”
But Arno Meissner, the chief of the government’s local education department, said he would enforce the mandatory school attendance law against the family, and he said he resented the judge’s interference.
“His duty is to make a judgment when the prosecutor brings a charge and to stay out of administrative matters,” Meissner said at the time.
The attitude is typical of some officials in Germany, where homeschooling has been stamped on since the Nazi era, critics say.
Practical Homeschool Magazine has noted one of the first acts by Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools and school-related issues.
In 1937, the dictator said, “The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”
Joerg Grosseleumern, a spokesman for the the Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschool advocacy group, said in Hesse a family’s failure to follow the mandatory public school attendance laws violates not only administration regulations but the criminal code.
“It is embarrassing the German officials put parents into jail whose children are well educated and where the family is in good order,” he wrote about the situation. “We personally know the Dudeks as such a family.”
Officials in Hesse have said not even the family’s efforts to move out of the region would halt their prosecution.
HSLDA officials estimate there are some 400 homeschool families in Germany, virtually all of them either forced into hiding or facing court actions.
Just a few months ago, WND reported the Dudeks warned about a new German federal law that also gives family courts the authority to take custody of children “as soon as there is a suspicion of child abuse,” which is how the nation’s courts have defined homeschooling.
“The new law is seen as a logical step in carving up family rights after a federal court had decided that homeschooling was an abuse of custody,” said the letter from Juergen Dudek to the HSLDA.
The letter said local “youth welfare” offices’ new authority includes “withdrawal of parental custody as one of the methods for punishing ‘uncooperative’ parents.”
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented previously on the issue, contending the government “has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion.”
Drautz said schools teach socialization, and as WND reported, that is important, as evident in the government’s response when a German family in another case wrote objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and delivering him to a public school.
“The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling,” said a government letter in response. “... You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. ... In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement.”
Makes me want to slap people who try to maintain the denial state
where they won't admit to the truth that everything the government does is at the implicit, if not the EXPLICIT, point of a gun.
I'm aware of the text. It is a common misunderstanding that treaties supercede the Constitution. From a grammatical point of view, the Constitution has primacy, then treaty, then national laws.
It is this clause which generally confuses:
anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
What that means is that state constitutions do not supercede national treatues.
treatues = treaties (of course)
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