The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Forgotten History of the White House Children's Conferences, 1909-1971

• Author: Maria Grahn-Farley
• Position: Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth
• Pages: 307-376

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the

Forgotten History of the White House Children’s

Conferences, 1909–1971*

Maria Grahn-Farley**

I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 309

II. A FORGOTTEN HISTORY AND OPPOSITION TO THE CRC ............. 314

III. A CALL TO REINSTATE THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCES ........ 320

IV. THE WHITE HOUSE CHILDREN‘S CONFERENCES ........................ 320

V. THE CRC ..................................................................................... 326

VI. THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND SURVIVAL, THE RIGHT TO

GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION, AND THE RIGHT TO RESPECT

AND TO BE HEARD ....................................................................... 328

VII. THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND SURVIVAL ............................................ 328

A. The Right to Health ......................................................... 331

1. Mental Health ....................................................... 336

2. Social Security and an Adequate Standard of

Living in the CRC .................................................. 337

3. Social Security and an Adequate Standard of

Living in the White House Conferences .............. 338

B. The Right to Education……………… ............................. 343

1. Education in the White House Conferences ........ 345

2. The Mental Health of the Child in a Social

Context ................................................................... 348

3. Precursor to Brown v. Board of Education .......... 349

* Copyright Maria Grahn-Farley 2011.

** Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts School of Law –Dartmouth; Associate

Professor, Albany Law School; former National Board Member of Rädda Barnen (Save the

Children–Sweden). I would like to thank all of the organizers of A Critical Juncture: Human

Rights & U.S. Standing in the World Under the Obama Administration, the 2010 symposium

hosted by Tr ansnational Law & Contemporary Problems. I would like to thank Jane Bestor for

her encouragement and support. I owe Adrien K. Wing many thanks; she is a role model for so

many progressive scholars. Lynnette Van Wyngarden has been an excellent articles editor and I

thank her. I would also like to thank Ajantha Subramanian, Daria Roithmayr, and Vince Brown.

I also owe thanks to Felipe Farley. Finally, a big thanks to Anthony Paul Farley.

Email: mgrahnfarley@sjd.law.harvard.edu

308 TRANSNATIONAL LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS [Vol. 20:307

4. After Brown v. Board of Education ...................... 349

5. Education in the White House Conferences and the

CRC Compared ...................................................... 350

C. The Right to Rest and Spare Time ................................. 351

VIII. THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION AND GUIDANCE ............................... 354

A. The Right to Be Protected from Discrimination ............ 355

1. The Shift from Studying Race to Studying

Racism .................................................................... 357

B. The Right to Family ........................................................ 358

1. The Right of the Child to be Safe and to Feel

Secure ..................................................................... 360

2. The CRC and the Right to Protection When the

Family Fails ........................................................... 361

3. The Family in the White House Conferences ...... 362

4. The Child Outside of Her or His Family: The Right

to Be Protected from Exploitation ........................ 363

C. The White House Conferences and the Right to Be

Protected from Exploitation ............................................ 364

1. Child Labor ............................................................ 364

2. Narcotics and Drugs .............................................. 365

3. Armed Conflict ....................................................... 365

4. Juvenile Justice ..................................................... 366

5. The Right to Be Protected from Exploitation in the

White House Conferences and the CRC

Compared ............................................................... 366

IX. THE RIGHT TO BE RESPECTED AND TO BE HEARD ..................... 367

A. The Right to Be Heard..................................................... 369

1. The Limitations of Article 12 ................................ 371

2. The Distinction Between the Right to Participation

and Decision-Making ............................................ 371

3. Child Participation in the White House

Conferences ............................................................ 373

4. Child Participation in the White House Conferences

and the CRC Compared ........................................ 374

X. CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 374

Summer 2011] U.N. CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHIL D 309

I. INTRODUCTION

―Nothing illuminates more searchingly the character of a State than the

methods it util izes in the upbringing of its young. The progress which any

nation makes, or fails to make, is faithfully recorded in the history of the

rearing of its children.‖

1

The United States took a significant step toward normalizing its

international human rights relations in November 2010 by adopting the

Child Rights Resolution.

2

The Child Rights Resolution is a step toward U.S.

ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (―CRC‖).

3

The

CRC is the most ratified human rights treaty in the world. The United States

and Somalia are the only two countries that are not parties to the CRC.

4

The United States was once a leader in child rights, but that history, the

history of the White House Ch ildren‘s Confe rences, 1909 –1971, has been all

but forgotten. Ratification of the CRC would give the United States a chance

to reconnect with the forgotten history of the White House Children‘s

Conferences. The CRC fits well with the policies and rights developed in the

White House Conferences.

Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, a journal of the

University of Iowa College of Law, organized this symposium, ―A Critical

Juncture: Human Rights and U.S. Standing in the World Under the Obama

Administration,‖ because the United States is indeed at a ―critica l juncture.‖

The United States is experiencing domestic unease as it attempts to recover

from a financial crisis along with the international credibility problem caused

by its two wars. It is easy, in light of these ―grown-up‖ problems, to forget

that these problems do not re main ―grown-up‖: children are often the victims

of economic and political turmoil.

5

The United States recognized this in its

reaction to World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression by taking

progressive steps in developing child welfare policies and a child rights

agenda through the White House Conferences.

6

1

William L. Chenery, Standards of Child Welfare, Prepared for the 1919 White House

Conference on the Standards of Child Welfare 11 (1919).

2

Förhandlingarna i FN:s Tredje Utskott Avslutade, REGERINGSKANSLIET (Nov. 26, 2010),

http://www.manskligarattigheter.se/extra/news/?module_instance=1&id=1641. See also HRC –

Explanation of Position on Rights of the Child, UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS

AND OTHER INT‘L ORGS. IN GENEVA (Mar. 26, 2010),

http://geneva.usmission.gov/2010/03/26/rights-child/.

3

Id.

4

T he Convention on the Rights of the Child, Nov. 20, 1989, 28 I.L.M. 1448, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3

[hereinafter CRC].

5

Chenery, supra note 1, at 11.

6

The author will use the term ―child rights‖ to address both rights and child welfare policies

throughout this Article. This mirrors the use of the term in the CRC and in the last of the White

House Conferences.