The United Nations recently set the rights of children against the rights of their parents. Meanwhile, many demand a right to parenthood, even at the cost of their children.
Child rights placed against parental rights
In the 2020 fall session of the United Nations Humans Rights Council Convention, member states rejected two resolutions, claiming they implicated an impingement of parental right upon children’s rights. The dissenting countries (27 of the 47 council member states) held that the amendments would allow parents to encroach on the rights of children. Allowing for parental guidance in the matters at hand, would, as Mexico put it, “bring setbacks in the enjoyment of the rights of the child.” Ukraine added that parental rights “undermine the recognition of the child as a right- holder and an active member of society.” Dissenting countries included all members of the European Union.
While many political powers and pressures weigh on each council member’s vote, it must be noted that the language of the rejected amendments was taken directly from the already adopted, and most ratified, treaty — United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As the UN balances this contentious topic across a thin and dangerous tight rope, individual countries are playing another dangerous game between the rights of parents and children.
Right of parenthood placed over rights of child
In some countries, everyone is granted the right to parenthood. This summer, at the encouragement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York State legalized commercial surrogacy (altruistic surrogacy has been legal in New York for many years). The Kenyan senate is currently debating the legalization of surrogacy by way of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill of 2019. Surrogacy is already legal in several countries, including India, Russia, Ireland and many US States.
Surrogacy assumes a right of every human to be a parent, regardless of the means necessary to attain the role or the effect on children. The ethical dilemmas brought about by surrogacy are unending, evidenced during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic— the Ukraine’s commercial surrogacy business came under much scrutiny when over 50 new born babies were parentless and held in a hotel turned nursery while borders were closed. The rights of these children, along with those of the surrogate mother, are diminished amidst the demand for parenthood.
Whose right?
Everyone is given a right to a child with the legalization of surrogacy but as soon as that child is born, officials are now pitting the rights of parents against the child. A child becomes a product of commerce rather than a gift, and parental responsibility becomes a danger. Both instances violate human rights, lacking an acknowledgment of the human person’s dignity and innumerable value, as individual, social beings. Disregarding the natural structure of the parent- child relationship, muddles the family community so essential to the fabric of society.
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