Shaping Our Future: The U.S. and UN Treaties

Why should the people of Westchester care about the U.S. and international treaties? The simple answer is, U.S. participation in the world affects us all. The U.S. is often in the lead in pressing for international agreements. However, we have also learned that strong differences exist in some matters, as seen in the debate over the past four years over the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War and the UN Convention Against Torture.

International treaties and conventions are essential to the development of an international community based on law and justice. Any “loss of sovereignty” by the United States is more than compensated by the benefits of these treaties, and by the dialogue that is necessary to develop an international community.

The United States Senate has passed, and the President has signed, many many treaties over the years. But the US has NOT ratified a number of important ones, including the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (Only the U.S. and Somalia haven’t ratified the Rights of the Child convention.) Such a failure is inexcusable. Moreover, the United States, as well as other countries that have ratified these conventions, is allowed sign while stating any reservations.

Great global issues are currently the subject of negotiations and treaty-making – nuclear testing, law of the sea, landmines, environment, climate change, and International Criminal Court. The U.S. needs to take a strong, positive role in shaping what remains under discussion and in ratifying the outcome of international consensus. Our country has more to lose than to gain by remaining slow in committing ourselves to the advancement of international norms.

The place of the United States in the twenty-first century will reflect in no small measure our willingness to “internationalize” the democratic values we have developed since 1776 and to engage with other countries to develop a law-based and just, international community.

In 2004, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under Richard G. Lugar (R – Indiana), voted 19-0 to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, which relates to policies on navigation, commerce and the environment. However, despite wide support for the treaty from many groups—industry, green and other— the majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) declined to bring the treaty to the floor for a vote.

In a recent article “Memo to America: Rejoin the World,” Strobe Talbott calls for ratification by the US Senate of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), re-signing of the Rome Treaty for the International Criminal Court (which President Bush “un-signed”), introducing legislation on greenhouse admissions in line with the Kyoto Treaty and in general rejoining the world in policies that will ensure America’s leadership, not demonstrate its recalcitrance. Talbott is President of the Brooking Institution and US Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001. His full essay appears online at www.theinterdependent.org. The Interdependent is the quarterly magazine of the United Nations Association of the USA.

On April 11, at the New York Judicial Institute in White Plains, the United Nations Association of the USA Westchester Chapter and Pace Law School will co-sponsor “UN Treaties: A Threat to U.S. Sovereignty?” Columbia Law School Professor Jose E. Alvarez, a county resident and authority on international treaties, will speak, and Prof. Gayl S. Westerman of Pace Law School, who specializes on the Law of the Sea Treaty, will moderate. The event will take place at 6 pm and is free and open to the public. This is an opportunity also to learn how citizens can promote action by our lawmakers on issues important to us all. For further information, call 914-478-3450 or email unausa@stratdev.com


Jeanne Betsock Stillman

Allen Weintraub, Esq.

Stillman is the Executive Director of the UN Association Westchester Chapter; Weintraub is a member of its Government Relations and Advocacy Committee.