GEORGE STAMATIS November 20, 2021 President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Biden, On this World Children's Day and the 32nd anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, I strongly urge you to send the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to the U.S. Senate for ratification by the next Universal Children’s Day. The USA is the ONLY United Nations country that hasn't ratified the CRC which is the most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty in history by the UN in 1989 and now ratified by 193 countries. US children deserve rights like all children in the world! The official US delegation was one of the most active in the drafting of this landmark Convention during the Eighties. It commented on nearly all of the articles and proposed the original text of seven - three of which were directly inspired by the US Constitution. In honor of longtime UNICEF Executive Director Jim Grant's dying request to President Bill Clinton, at his memorial service, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made an announcement that took everyone by surprise: the United States would sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, one of Grant’s major projects “We owe it to him and to the children of the world, to whom he dedicated his life,” said Clinton at his funeral. In Feb 1995, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, signed the convention on behalf of President Clinton. "The late James P. Grant, a little-known American aid worker who headed UNICEF from 1980 to 1995 and launched the child survival revolution with vaccinations and diarrhea treatments, probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao and Stalin combined" -- Nicholas D. Kristof, March 6, 2008There has been much support for the CRC within the USA. Example: A bipartisan Senate resolution (S. Res. 70, 103rd Cong. (1993-94) introduced in early 1993 noted that the U.S. was the only Western industrialized country to not sign or ratify the CRC, and called on President Bill Clinton to promptly sign and present the treaty to the Senate. The resolution had 45 supporters, including Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Sen. David Durenberger (R- MN), and Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-VT).53 Despite this pressure, the Clinton Administration held off and refused to sign the CRC until the review process was completed. Mr, President, America ows this ratification to all the children of America, the children of the world, and to people like James Grant who initiated it, fought very hard for this convention and was determined that by the end of 1995 every country should have ratified the convention and is also hailed as responsible for saving more lives than any other person in the world. I was of course most heartened by President Obama's response while you were his team mate to become Vice-President to a question posed by 17-Y-Old Tyler of North Carolina at Walden University in Oct 2008: “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a legally binding set of basic rights for minors. The only two countries which are not signatories to the CRC are Somalia and the United States. Somalia has not had a functioning government for some time. As President, would you seek the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?” to which Preside Obama replied: “It's important that the United States return to its position as a respected global leader and promoter of human rights. It’s embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land. I will review this and other treaties to ensure the United States resumes its global leadership in human rights.”Similarly heartening was the position taken by you Mr. President, who, as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, strongly supported ratification of the CRC and on October 19, 2008, during a live discussion on washingtonpost.com, unequivocally reaffirmed your stance on this question. Until now, there has been at least 15 governors and states which have issued proclamations or passed resolutions in support of the Convention. There are also 16 resolutions that were passed at the city and local levels. In light of the above, there is no need to try to convince either you or your Administration as to the desirability and potentially positive consequences of the USA joining with the other 193 States Parties to the CRC, thereby making this core human rights treaty a truly universal one that would then have even greater positive impact on the lives of children everywhere. This letter to you is therefore simply to encourage you strongly to take the necessary initiatives to ensure ratification of the CRC during your Presidency. This would be one of the most important and durable legacies that you and your Administration could leave to the children of the USA and the world. One more thing, Imagine what could be accomplished if both ends of Pennsylvania avenue actually made this dream come true. Mr. President, I made a vow to work to get the USA to ratify the CRC until my last breath on earth. George Stamatis Child Rights Advocate UNICEF Fight Unfair Children's Rights Champion Gold Medal Recipient Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Recipient