There have been pockets of discussion, on the web and off, in the homeschool community and other family focused venues, about how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, intended to ameliorate the well-documented suffering and abuse of children worldwide, might have unintended adverse affects and consequences on those taking a more intentional role in raising their children. This recent case in Belgium provides a look at one of those consequences, with the first hand perspective of the family involved.
You can read the entire convention here:
http://www.unicef.org/crc/ with additional views and discussions at the Child Rights Information Network:
http://www.crin.org/themes/index.asp, which provides a look at some of the
statistics and situations around the world. Additional information is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/treaties_children.shtml and
http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/RIGHTS/crc_over.htm . And there's also some interesting background
and additional resources on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_ChildHere's a look at the recent Belgium issue. LIFE Inc. invites
reasoned, civil discussion on this (or any other topic) and reminds readers and writers that
there are many sides to any issue, and that the best way to be understood is to first try to understand!In continued freedom of living and learning,
Theresa Willingham
LIFE Inc.
www.learningis4everyone.org ______________________________________________
Crackdown on Homeschoolers: It's the UN Wot Done It
From the desk of Alexandra Colen on Tue, 2006-06-20 21:21
Complete commentary at The Brussels Journal:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1121 In today's Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen Bob Van de Voorde, the spokesman of Frank Vandenbroucke, the minister of Education, says:
"One of the conditions [for homeschooling] is that the homeschoolers must sign a document in which they promise to rear their children along the lines of the UN Convention on Children's Rights. These parents have not done this. This is why the ministry has started an inquiry."
The parents Mr Van de Voorde is referring to in the paper are my husband (TBJ editor Paul Belien) and myself. The "inquiry" is a threat to prosecute us.
Homeschooling is a constitutional right in Belgium. We have homeschooled four of our five children through high school. Only the youngest is still being homeschooled because the others are already at university. And yet, as if they have nothing better to do, the Belgian police and judiciary are conducting an "inquiry" into our homeschooling to see whether we "rear our children along the lines of the United Nations Convention on Children's Rights."
