Agarwal 1

Dishita Agarwal

ELA Core 3

Ms. Powell

7 January 2019

Protecting the Utopian Role of Children

If a random group people sat down and discussed about what children (under eighteen

years of age) should have or do in a functioning society, there would probably be commonalities

among the various views. Most likely, those commonalities would have to do with shelter, food,

family and school. Recently, specific situations in the USA have caused us to question if we are

giving chances to all children to fulfill their proper role in society. To prevent us from asking that

question, the UNICEF has come up with a way to protect children, the Convention on the Rights

of Children, and the USA is the only country that hasn’t ratified it. The CRC is a step towards a

perfect utopia. The USA should ratify the CRC to avoid the predicaments related to rights of

children and their discriminating factors from getting worse than they already are, to make sure

politics won’t overcloud the best interests of children and to ensure that all children are getting

the right to their utopian role in society.

First of all, the state of children in the USA over the past two to three years has been

exceptionally worse than before and a lot of the data points to discriminating factors such as

race. In categories like child poverty, income and wealth inequality, homelessness and food

insecurity, children of color are excessively affected (The State of America's Children® 2017

Report). The CRC can stop this from happening because in their second article it clearly states

that “The Convention applies to all children, whatever their race, religion or abilities; whatever

they think or say, whatever type of family they come from. It doesn’t matter where children live,
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what language they speak, what their parents do, whether they are boys or girls, what their

culture is, whether they have a disability or whether they are rich or poor. No child should be

treated unfairly on any basis.” (Fact Sheets). Without the CRC, there is not much action taking

place to accommodate the needs of specific children, so it’s a dystopia. “[The problem is that

people don’t consider children specifically,] for example, a lot of people right now are hating the

idea of letting migrants from Mexico come into the US. They think of that as a whole and forget

about the children that are walking with the caravans” says one interviewee respondent. This can

changes people’s views of the role of legal Hispanic children in the United States’ utopia. Even

though there are policies put in place by the government, prejudice and racism gets in the way.

Many Hispanics and children of color aren’t granted the education and services, because people

think that all of the children that are part of minorities shouldn’t be in their utopia. This leads

them to having an insufficient life that is validated by the data (The State of America's

Children® 2017 Report). Another interview respondent says “When [adults] have what they

need, they tend to not think of [children] who don’t have everything they have, so solutions

aren’t created.” If we ratified the CRC, it would have specific articles that focus on an individual

child’s vulnerabilities, rather than a whole group like government policies do, and would include

every child in utopia.

Furthermore, disagreements and grudges between political parties make the leaders of our

country forget about who they are trying to protect, but the CRC is politically unbiased and

focuses only on the children. Things that would be illegal under the CRC are being passed as the

cause of poor laws or failed approaches and aren’t taken seriously. For example, the Trump

administration violated children’s rights and international law by separating immigrant children

from their families, under the policy of prosecuting undocumented people crossing the border.
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For a while, the only thing that happened was that President Trump tweeted and blamed the

situation on the democrats’ poor laws, but agreed it was wrongdoing (Cumming-Bruce).

Dilemmas like this can leave an impact on the country’s people and how they view a utopia

because they are only getting information from biased sources and they don’t know what’s

wrong and what’s right. According to an interviewee, “[The government is] under-representing

this crucial information so that the Americans would think that America is great”. If people

didn’t know the information about the state of children in USA, they would most likely think that

the country was perfect and flawless and we didn’t have things to fix, with all children following

their actual utopian roles that are given by the CRC. “I haven’t really heard anything on the news

about … [the state of children]. I was shocked when I heard those things. … [USA] want[s] to

uphold their reputation of a good country that does things right.” says another interview

respondent. When the information about the state of children becomes mainstream, we can avoid

the catastrophes lead by shock that comes after by ratifying the CRC because UNICEF can

spread awareness, which is key in utopia.

Lastly, since the CRC eliminates discrimination it can help focus on fulfilling children’s

utopian role by giving them the things they need to be unique and strive. The individuality of a

child comes from their personality, culture, interests, thoughts and conscience so these things

need to be protected. To do so, a child needs an education, an adequate standard of living, proper

health care, and people who appreciate them for who they are. If children do not have this, the

CRC will provide them with it. Even though children are young and are legally handled by

adults, they should be given privacy and security. Many decisions are made in children’s lives

when they have no say. While children should not command adults such as their parents and

teachers, they should have the right to speak in any matters concerning them. The CRC will also
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make sure that the government has no more say in their life than adults close to them. “People

need to express kindness and care for each other, children’s lives should not be in [the hands of

politicians who… [might not] think about [if] what they say [will] hurt … [children]… [there

needs to be a] supportive society, not a society where everyone can get hurt.” says an interview

respondent. Children should be able to enjoy what they love, with the people they love. The CRC

cannot only protect this but can also give a child their own utopia, which contributes to our entire

country.

However, there are some people who believe that ratifying the CRC is not the right way

to go. The first reason of theirs is that USA is already protecting children without any help. U.S

officials say that there have been changes over 30 years to catch up with the CRC. For example,

in 2005, it was made unconstitutional to execute children under 18, but many states continued on

(Lauria, Joe). Also, child abuse cases have risen to over 3 million cases in a year (Children of

United States of America). There also have been many policies implemented that go against

children’s rights. People also complain that the CRC would be too intrusive on parent’s rights

(Lauria, Joe) but article 5 states that “The Convention does not take responsibility for children

away from their parents and give more authority to governments. It does place on governments

the responsibility to protect and assist families in fulfilling their essential role as nurturers of

children” (Fact Sheets). This would imply that the parents make the ultimate decisions, but none

of those decisions would be allowed to hurt the children. There also have been some theories that

children would find a way to take advantage of those rights. But every single right that is written

on the Convention also has a define limit. Some people, such as an interview correspondent. are

afraid that with freedom of association children will join gangs “[and they will exercise their]

ability to do all [dangerous] things, like drugs”. Articles 33 and 36 of the CRC make sure that
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the government’s top priority should be to keep children away from anything that harms their

welfare or development, preventing this and taking away most of the possibilities to turn a

child’s utopia into a dystopia.

Overall, the protection that will be given to all children, no matter what race, gender,

religion or color definitely out rules the small amount of children who might find a way to do

bad things around the convention. Discrimination won’t define children any more. The children

who need extra aid will be provided with it. Political disputes and administrational mistakes will

not affect children. The best interests of the children will be the main priority in any situation

concerning them. People will be aware of past states of children and will know how to assist in

fixing the problems. Children will be given a voice and be protected from any type of abuse or

exploitation. They will have a proper environment to grow and be allowed to have people, places

and things they love. It is practically a utopia given to children by one single ratification of a

convention, the CRC. If the ratification does happen, USA will not stand alone in a negligent

way but together in a noble way. a way in which the whole country understands and provides the

utopian role of children in society.

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Works Cited

Agarwal, Dishita, and Allen Xu. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

Agarwal, Dishita, and Hayden Creech. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

Agarwal, Dishita, and Jonathan Uhlenberg. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

Agarwal, Dishita, and Kennedy Gibb. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

Agarwal, Dishita, and Rou Yu Tan. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

Agarwal, Dishita, and Sandith Ganhewage. “Children's Rights.” 21 Dec. 2018.

“Children of United States of America.” Humanium • We Make Children's Rights Happen,

www.humanium.org/en/united-states-of-america/.

Cumming-Bruce, Nick. “Taking Migrant Children From Parents Is Illegal, U.N. Tells U.S.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 5 June 2018,

www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/americas/us-un-migrant-children-families.html.

“Fact Sheets.” UNICEF, 19 May 2014, www.unicef.org/crc/index_30228.html.

Lauria, Joe. “Why Won't the US Ratify the UN's Children's Rights Convention?” The Huffington

Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 Jan. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-lauria/why-wont

the-us-ratify-th_b_6195594.html.

“The State of America's Children® 2017 Report.” Children's Defense Fund,

www.childrensdefense.org/reports/2017/the-state-of-americas-children-2017-report/.