We might begin to correct our deficiencies by considering the possibility of ratifying the second of these treaties and removing the exceptions to our ratification of the third, as well as ratifying the two optional protocols. Then we could legislate and enforce strict compliance with the entire package. There are seven additional major treaties aimed at protecting human rights:
1. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which has been ratified by 173 nations, including the United States; however, the US ratification includes major exceptions.
2. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which is accompanied by an optional protocol. The United States is the only wealthy nation that has not ratified.
4. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is accompanied by two optional protocols, one related to armed conflict, the other to slavery, prostitution, and pornography. The United States and Somalia are the only two nations that have not ratified this convention.
5. The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Worker s and Members of Their Families. No wealthy countries have ratified this convention, only poor ones.
6. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This is a new treaty, not yet in force. Thus far 73 countries have signed, and four have ratified. The United States has done neither.
7. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is accompanied by an optional protocol. The United States is the only wealthy nation that has not ratified.
As you can see, of the above, the US has only ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which included major exceptions, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, but only the convention, not the protocol. And, despite having signed the Convention Against Torture, we are violating it by failing to prosecute all acts of complicity in torture.
These treaties, combined with those above, would provide the United States, if enforced, with the vast majority of the rights I discussed above, and would do so in a way that united us with the rest of the world. We should abandon our rogue state status and join with the world community. In fact, we should lead the way by fully ratifying and aggressively legislating and enforcing all of these treaties. The United States would be obliged by the above treaties to accord equal rights to non-Americans, to work with other nations to eliminate world hunger, to report to the United Nations on its progress in providing all of the rights created by the treaties, and to take active steps in many areas, including by working to end racial discrimination, ensuring that the mass media disseminates material of social and cultural benefit to children, and ensuring access and lack of discrimination for people with disabilities.
There are other treaties that we should join and abide by, as well. The General Assembly resolution on "Permanent sovereignty over natural resources" and the "International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries" both do what it sounds like they do, with obvious consequences for US behavior in Iraq and elsewhere. The same goes for the "Principles of Medical Ethics Relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment." I've mentioned in a previous chapter the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which Clinton signed and Bush unsigned. It should be signed, ratified, and enforced. So should the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, and the Principles of International Cooperation in the Detection, Arrest, Extradition and Punishment of Persons Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.
Even if we were to ratify and enforce all of the above treaties, or most of them, and others like them, and new ones that we might originate, we would also need to place enforcement measures in our national code of law, and there would be an advantage to incorporating key rights and freedoms into the US Constitution, including some that are not established by the treaties above. Some of the changes we need can only be made by amending the Constitution. Constitutional amendments should not replace treaties, but can reinforce them. Our Constitution was designed to be amended. Article V reads:
"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof , as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress . . ."
Our original Constitution was not only written over two centuries ago, but it was written with the influence of a very antidemocratic spirit. We have amended the Constitution to include new groups of people within the umbrella of "we the people," and to make other improvements, but we have not amended the Constitution in the dramatic ways in which its authors certainly expected we would need to. We're dragging around with us a radically outdated structure of government. And, yes, even today we fail to live up to some of its better ideas, but that is in part because of the limitations imposed on us by some of its worse ones. At this point of crisis, in the midst of economic and political turmoil, we are in need of serious change. I think we should seriously consider working to move two-thirds of the states, through their legislatures or through state conventions, to call a new constitutional convention as one of several approaches to reforming our government. It's about time we made the first use of a tool that has been sitting there gathering dust in Article V for over two centuries!
In fact, a group called Friends of the Article V Convention has documented at least 754 applications already filed with Congress by the states (at least one from each of the fifty states) calling for a convention. But only four states have taken this action since the year 2000. Some combination of the following may be required to make a convention actually happen: new applications must be grouped within a short period of time from two-thirds of the fifty states, public pressure must be placed on Congress, or lawsuits must be brought against Congress by the states. The states' applications need not be identical in language or raise the same topics or propose the same amendments. But our goal should be to propose and pass at the convention a group of amendments that accomplishes comprehensive reform.
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