The U.S and its Pending Ratification of the UNCRC
- WULR Team
- Jan 23
- 3 min read
Why the U.S is the only country not to have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Published January 23 2025
Analysis by Addie Merrick
The United States is the only member state within the United Nations that has signed but not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC is a legally binding international agreement that outlines the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of every child, regardless of race, religion, or abilities. This treaty seeks to ensure the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, as established by the United Nations. However, while it has been ratified by 195 countries, the United States is the sole exception.
While the U.S. remains hesitant in its decision to ratify this treaty, many countries benefit from the legal framework establishing heightened protection of children’s rights in countries whose legal systems operate in full accordance with the UNCRC. Countries that benefit most from the UNCRC are mainly Middle Eastern countries, particularly benefitting from protection regarding labor and child detention laws. Jordan’s present legal system is subject to the UNCRC, requiring a special duty of care given to children by law (1). Furthermore, the Jordanian legal system is obligated to ensure children in Jordan are protected from dangerous work that may be a hindrance to their right to health or education, while also protecting them from economic exploitation.
The extent to which the UNCRC is efficient in the preventative exploitation of children is slower to develop and establish in the United States. The contentious issue was exemplified in the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, where the Supreme Court ruled the execution of a 17-year-old juvenile defendant was unconstitutional. The court ruled that children under the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to death, citing Article 37 of the UNCRC in their ruling and highlighting the fact that the United States is solitary in its failure to ratify a treaty prohibiting capital punishment to juveniles (2). This ruling created an ethicality-based dispute, raising the question of whether or not the UNCRC would be effective in addressing the position of children in the death penalty under United States law.
In their consideration of the UNCRC, Congress established that the United States already has a comprehensive legal framework for children’s rights. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act is an example of a federal law enacted to criminalize child abuse. Additionally, states criminalize child abuse in state statutory law, yet there are still minor disparities in the degree to which children’s rights are protected, varying by state. These disparities solidify the belief that the American child protection legal framework is distributed unevenly throughout the country. While some acknowledge these discrepancies and call on the imperativeness of the ratification of the UNCRC, others agree that because the United States already has both federal and state statutes protecting the rights of the child, the ratification is unnecessary.
Whether or not the ratification of the UNCRC accurately represents the beliefs of American citizens, Congress remains at a standstill, deeming the ratification of the UNCRC politically improbable. While the United States was actively involved in drafting the UNCRC, its ratification remains a significant course of discussion that carries over from one consecutive presidential term to the next. It remains a loose-ended political and legal discussion that prompts many to think about the proposed extent of its effectiveness.
 Legal Protection of Children Toolkit. (n.d.). https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/guidelines/legal-protection-of-children/legal-protection-of-children-toolkit_english.pdfÂ
 Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005). Justia Law. (n.d.). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/543/551/. Â
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