Happy Human Rights Day 2019!

The final report from the 14th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has been released, and it carries important conclusions such as this one:

With so many children making use of the Internet – 1 in 3 Internet users in the developed world, and 1 in 2 globally, are children – the main issue surrounding children’s rights in the digital age is how to interpret and uphold such rights, which are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This Convention, promoted by President Ronald Reagan and signed by the U.S. in 1989, now is the most-signed human rights legislation in the world. There is just one country in the world refusing ratification.

America.

The refusal to sign the Convention is based on a false concept of sovereignty.

This false concept is implicated in the mass incarceration of children separated from their parents by America, disgraceful exposure of networks conspiring against women and children such as Epstein and Governor Bevin, as well extremist religious groups funding a minority of politicians being allowed to deny all American children the rights they would get anywhere else in the world.

Just for comparison to other nations in the world, America’s top two causes of death of children are cars and guns, which tend to be propagated by extremists as symbols of American sovereignty.

Motor vehicle crashes caused the death of 4,074 children in 2016. That’s more than 80 kids per state. “Motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for children and adolescents, representing 20% of all deaths; firearm-related injuries were the second leading cause of death, responsible for 15% of deaths.” As you can see, #2 on the list is guns — no surprise considering we are bombarded weekly with news of random senseless deaths from revolvers to machine guns. Firearms caused the death of 3,143 children in 2016.

Abuse of children and murder with cars literally are so ingrained in the American power psyche they are being pardoned just this month by politicians.

The question becomes simply whether an honest campaign like the famous “Stop The Child Murder“, which dramatically improved quality of life in Holland, would ever work in America.

With cars came carnage. In 1971 alone, thirty-three hundred people—including more than four hundred children—were killed on Dutch roads. A number of organizations, including a group named Stop de Kindermoord, or Stop the Child Murder, began agitating to take the streets back from automobiles.

Forty years later America is still busy pardoning those who abuse and kill…so when will it wake up to reduce these top causes of physical death from the past age?

Other countries clearly have proven much better paths forward. What likelihood is there for America to catch up and sign the Convention to become at least a follower in child safety for the emerging digital age? Or could it even leap-frog and jump into a leadership role? One thing is certain: the current U.S. stance on rights is regressive relative to the world.