The Scorecard on Children’s Rights in the US: Daily Brief

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September 7, 2023
By Andrew Stroehlein
Contact me at DailyBriefTeam@hrw.org and Twitter @astroehlein.

In today's Daily Brief:

Failing Grades, But Some Signs of Hope
Haiti’s Living Nightmare
Europe’s Confusion on Sex Work
Take Note: Other Key Stories
Weekly Quiz!
Announcement: New Daily Brief Schedule
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The Scorecard on Children’s Rights in the US

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Of the 50 states in the US, how many do you think meet international children’s rights standards?

None.

Not one US state received an “A grade” in our new scorecard, published today. No state even managed to get a “B.” Seven got a “C,” 27 a “D,” and 16 an “F.”

This all may come as a shock to those who consider the US a relatively rich country, where children have it pretty good. It’s possible some are looking no further than their own comfortable neighborhood or mistaking some TV shows for reality.

Or maybe some folks think the standards are too high? So, they approve of child marriage? (still legal in 41 US states). They are for school officials being able to physically assault kids? (called “corporal punishment, it’s legal in 47 states)

They would want to see kids sentenced to life in prison without parole in some circumstances? (legal in 22 states). They’re happy with children doing dangerous work in agriculture? (legal in all 50 states)

I bet not.

I’m sure most readers here – and most Americans, as well – would not approve of these things. I don’t see many folks out there supporting child abuse, do you?

A lot of the topics I discuss in this newsletter are complicated. This one is not.

Beating kids, cutting their childhoods short through early marriage, having them work in hazardous jobs - it’s simply wrong, and no one has to tell you this. You know it. I know it. Most every adult knows it. Children deserve our protection.

The good news is, we are seeing some progress in the US since I wrote in this newsletter about last year’s scorecard. Four states have shed their “F” grade, three moved up to a “C,” and several significantly improved their rankings. Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Vermont, and West Virginia showed improvement over the last year.

And while it’s disturbingly true, as I described more recently, that some states have actually moved to roll back child labor protections, we have been pleased to see positive policy changes in several states in other areas: banning life without parole for kids, for example, and prohibiting child marriage.

What’s more, policymakers in several states have introduced new legislation that could lead to further improvements. There are currently bills to ban or restrict child marriage in Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, South Carolina, and Washington. There’s also a promising bill banning corporal punishment in schools in New York.

What we are witnessing here is people’s widely shared morality forcing the law to catch up with us. (Thanks to active public pressure, of course.)

Because we all know that how we treat our kids is a moral imperative. It says everything about how we see ourselves, about the society we want to live in, and – at the risk of getting a bit Whitney Houston about it – what kind of future we want to help create.

Haiti’s Living Nightmare

When I went to Haiti more than three decades ago, I was overwhelmed.

It was the first time, I admit here with some embarrassment, that I ever saw true poverty – the desperate, all-encompassing kind of poverty that, when witnessed face-to-face, evokes so many cascading emotions all at once: shock, revulsion, sympathy, guilt, helplessness.

All my family roots are struggling working class, but I was basically a middle-class kid from a leafy suburb. I’d never seen anything like it.

And I think anyone who knows anything about Haiti would say the situation there is far worse today than when I saw it.

It’s not just the country’s poverty. Yes, most of the population lives below the poverty line. Of Haiti’s 11.5 million people, 5.2 million – including 4 million children – are in need of humanitarian aid; 4.7 million people are facing acute hunger.

But Haiti is also suffering a breakdown of public security that’s nothing short of “a living nightmare.”

Criminal groups in and around Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, are terrorizing residents with killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence, all increasing dramatically since the start of this year. It’s rampant murderous mayhem.

The government’s response has been weak to non-existent. It’s utterly failed to protect people from the violence. Many suspect the reason is because the criminal gangs have ties with senior political officials, economic actors, and police officers.

UN officials and other international voices are bluntly calling for the “carnage” to stop. However, Haiti is now so broken that, even despite the legacies of abusive interventions in the past, international security support may be necessary once again.

Europe’s Confusion on Sex Work

Last week, the European Parliament saw a motion put forward that would criminalize the purchase of sex across the EU.

Twenty-four hours later, the European Court of Human Rights, part of the Council of Europe, advanced a case against criminalization.

My expert colleague, Erin Kilbride, quipped: “Confused? So is Europe.”

Erin goes on to explain that – while the regulation of sex work is complicated, context-specific, and fraught with strong opinions – what’s not complicated is the data.

Research consistently shows that criminalization increases physical attacks, sexual violence, and police abuse.

The motion in the European Parliament to criminalize the purchase of sex is essentially pushing the so-called “Nordic Model” as an EU-wide solution.

However, when implemented, what this kind of regulation ends up doing is forcing sex work deeper into the shadows. Clients fear arrest, so sex workers have to work in darker, more remote, and more dangerous locations.

This is why we oppose it.

The European Court of Human Rights has declared admissible a case brought by 261 sex workers against the French government related to its 2016 law criminalizing the purchase of sex. The court will now examine and rule on the merits of the case.

What this means is, as Erin says: “The court’s recognition of sex workers as legitimate claimants is an important step toward protecting their rights.”