President Obama and UN Treaties

A magician’s “magic” is often worked by getting his audience to look in the wrong place at just the right time. While the audience is distracted, the magician pulls off that sleight of hand action that surprises everyone. I am concerned that the same thing may be happening in our country.

While we are focused on many important issues, some potentially more important issues are going unnoticed. At this time, I am thinking about the new role of the U.S. at the United Nations. Many of the UN’s centerpiece initiatives which have been languishing because of U.S. inaction are experiencing new life. In her March 2009 newsletter, Phyllis Schlafly summarizes many of the most troubling initiatives:

· The UN Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which Reagan rejected in 1982, is high on Obama's list. LOST has already created the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Jamaica and given it total regulatory jurisdiction over all the world's oceans and all the riches on the ocean floor. Corrupt foreign dictators dominate LOST's global bureaucracy, and the U.S. would have the same vote as Cuba. Likewise for LOST's International Tribunal in Hamburg, Germany, which has the power to decide all disputes. Even worse, LOST gives the ISA the power to levy international taxes. The real purpose of the taxing power is to compel the United States to spend billions of private-enterprise dollars to mine the ocean floor and then let ISA bureaucrats transfer our wealth to socialist, anti-American nations.

· Next on Obama's list is the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was signed by Bill Clinton but rejected by the Senate in 1999. It would prohibit all nuclear explosive testing and thereby allow our nuclear arsenal to deteriorate until the American people are defenseless against rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea.

· A new Global Warming Treaty is starting to be written at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland in order to replace the Kyoto Agreement which George W. Bush and our Senate refused to ratify. The new treaty would force dramatic reductions in our use of energy, i.e., our standard of living, and impose the "strong international norms" that Obama seeks.

· Obama is toadying to his feminist friends by pushing ratification of the UN Treaty on Women, known as CEDAW. It was signed by Jimmy Carter in 1980 and persistently promoted by Hillary Clinton, but the Senate has so far had the good judgment to refuse to ratify it. This treaty would require us "to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women," to follow UN dictates about "family education," to revise our textbooks to conform to feminist ideology in order to ensure "the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women," and to set up a federal "network of child-care facilities." Article 16 would require us to allow women "to decide number and spacing of their children." Everyone recognizes this as feminist jargon for a UN obligation to allow abortion on demand. Like all UN treaties, the UN Treaty on Women creates a monitoring commission of so-called "experts" to ensure compliance. The monitors of the Treaty on Women have already singled out Mother's Day as a stereotype that must be eliminated.

· Another UN Treaty on the list is the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child, which was signed in 1995 by Bill Clinton but wisely never ratified by our Senate. This is a pet project of the people who believe that the "village" (i.e., the government or UN "experts") should raise children rather than their parents. This treaty would give children rights against their parents and society to express their own views "freely in all matters," to receive information of all kinds through "media of the child's choice," to use their "own language," and to have the right to "rest and leisure." This treaty even orders our schools to teach respect for "the Charter of the United Nations."

All of these treaties are supported by the Obama administration. And if ever ratified by the Senate, they will have a direct bearing on U.S. law. Our Constitution views treaties that the U.S. enters with other nations as legally binding.

Article Six of our Constitution states: This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

So, what would it take for these UN treaties to become part of U.S. law? According to Marci Hoffman, an International & Foreign Law Librarian at UC Berkeley Law Library, here’s the process:

Secretary of State authorizes negotiation
U.S. representative negotiates Agree on terms,
and upon authorization of Secretary of State, sign treaty
President submits treaty to Senate
Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers treaty and reports to Senate
Senate considers and approves by 2/3 majority
President proclaims entry into force

Fortunately, it would be difficult to obtain the 2/3 vote needed in the Senate, but as you can imagine, we are closer to it than we have ever been. We need to keep an eye on these developments, (and many other dangerous trends at the UN like laws against religious speech and attempts to create an international right to abortion), while the administration keeps us busy watching other very important activities.

Barrett