A U.N. treaty conferring rights to children could make homeschooling illegal in the U.S. even though the Senate has not ratified it, a homeschooling association warns.

Michael Farris, chairman and general counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, believes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child could be binding on U.S. citizens because of activist judges, reports LifeSite News.

Farris said that according to a new interpretation of "customary international law," some U.S. judges have ruled the convention applies to American parents.

"In the 2002 case of Beharry v. Reno, one federal court said that even though the convention was never ratified, it still has an impact on American law," Farris explained, according to LifeSiteNews. "The fact that virtually every other nation in the world has adopted it has made it part of customary international law, and it means that it should be considered part of American jurisprudence."

The convention places severe limitations on a parent's right to direct and train their children, Farris contends.

The HSLDA produced a report in 1993 showing that under Article 13, parents could be subject to prosecution for any attempt to prevent their children from interacting with material they deem unacceptable.

Under Article 14, children are guaranteed "freedom of thought, conscience and religion," which suggests they have a legal right to object to all religious training. Further, under Article 15, the child has a right to "freedom of association."

"If this measure were to be taken seriously, parents could be prevented from forbidding their child to associate with people deemed to be objectionable companions," the HSLDA report explained.

Farris pointed out that in 1995 the United Kingdom was deemed out of compliance with the convention "because it allowed parents to remove their children from public school sex-education classes without consulting the child."

Farris argues, according to LifeSiteNews, that "by the same reasoning, parents would be denied the ability to homeschool their children unless the government first talked with their children and the government decided what was best. This committee would even have the right to determine what religious teaching, if any, served the child's best interest."

Offering solutions, Farris suggests Congress use its power to define customary law and modify the jurisdiction of federal courts.

"Congress needs to address this issue of judicial tyranny by enacting legislation that limits the definition of customary international law to include only provisions of treaties that Congress has ratified," he said.

Farris also suggested Congress could pass a constitutional amendment stating explicitly that no provision of any international agreement can supersede the constitutional rights of an American citizen.

He pointed out two such amendments have been proposed in Congress.

Finally, he says specific threats to parental rights can be solved by "putting a clear parents' rights amendment into the black and white text of the United States Constitution."

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"It is the Right of the People to alter or abolish the Government"
Declaration of Independence
"Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself."
Thomas Jefferson
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."
Milton Friedman

The U.N. a Jewish invention. When your home schooled you can't be indoctrinated, thus they want to out law it.

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"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson

"The conservative movement has been hijacked and turned into a globalist, interventionist, open borders ideology, which is not the conservative movement I grew up with." Pat Buchanan

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"
Thomas Jefferson

roflmao....yeah, right, they're going to knock on every door and ask every child how they want to be schooled. Stupidity at it's finest.

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Ephesians 5:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyR41JbpL_g

Remember that the goal is to have the village raise the child and not the parents.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Don't know how old you are Ocean but my son will be 30 next year. When he was in school in Florida during the early 1980's homeschooling was illegal unless you received special permission and submitted your leason plan to government school overseers. It would not be very difficult to go back to that and outlaw all homeschooling without specific authorization.

Most people are followers, homeschooling was not viewed as something thinking parents would want. How difficult do you think it would be to return to that line of thinking? Maybe one cycle of Hollywood TV season with the cops on Law and Order arresting parents who mistreated their homeschool kids, or House having to treat a child who comes down with a horrible disease because he was home schooled or a 20/20 expose of homeschooling parents who leave their children home when they go shopping. No, the parents of America would be so quick to demonize homeschooling and welcome laws against it it would make your head spin.

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Its better to have fussed and crabbed then never to have fussed at all - Lucy

I am pro-home schooling, but don't homeschool. I have many military friends who home school, makes sense, since each school district, county to county, state to state is different. No way the UN could effect the schools. Who teaches your child the basics, colors, shapes, alphabet, numbers; PARENTS. Now think back to Plymouth Rock; SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education

The government doesn't belong in public education.

I did have to supplement my daughter in 2nd grade, I used A Beka. So, I know that home schooling wasn't outlawed in FL in the 1980's... the A Beka foundation is in FL; ABB Our Foundation

I suggest you read up on homeschooling. Homeschool.com - The #1 Homeschooling Site The parents of America need to be more pro-active in their childrens education. The system is overburden and is a babysitting service because of the parents.

BTW: sending out the private and Christain applications for our kids this week. We tried 2 years of public school, decent teachers, but the classroom kids are from hell.

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Ephesians 5:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyR41JbpL_g

Nathan; you were right about homeschooling outlawed in FL, my apologizes.

Worldandnation: Homeschooling: It's not what you think

__________________
Ephesians 5:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyR41JbpL_g

This is just another attempt for the UN to control the world.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Um.....not so far-fetched.

That psycho kid who killed those people in Colorado was homeschooled.

The media has been all over that fact...not so much are they talking about all the psychoactive drugs his shrinks had him on for some reason.

And the woman security guard who stopped him from opening up in a crowded room with an AK? She is "unstable" because she was fired from a job 10 years ago....

Tokie

It was illegal virtually everywhere until the early 90s, when parents, disgusted with, afraid of and tired of the poor, leftist, far-left "education" their kids were getting demanded more.

Tokie