Balkinization  

Monday, November 02, 2015

Ignominious American exceptionalism

Marty Lederman

During a 2008 presidential debate, then-Senator Obama remarked that it was "embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land," as being the only two states in the world that had not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  (The U.S. signed the treaty in 1995; but there is opposition to ratification among many Senators.  The principal controversial provision, believe it or not, appears to be Article 37(a), which provides that "[n]o child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."  Opponents of the treaty fear that this will compel prohibition of "reasonable corrective spankings in the home.")

Well, as Marko Milanovic reports, we're in Somalia's company no longer.  Cue Harry Nilsson.

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