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Petition Tag - childrens rights
On Sat. August 2, 2008, three year old Carson Chaney was taken to Colquitt Regional Medical Center and placed in ICU due to serious injuries sustained at the hands of his father, Colt and his stepmom, Amanda Chaney of Moultrie, Georgia. Colt and Amanda Chaney have since been charged with two counts of First Degree Cruelty to Children and other charges are pending.
Carson's injuries, as stated by the Moultrie Observer, are: 2nd and 3rd degree burns on numerous places on his body that had blistered and bled due to lack of medical treatment, bruises and abrasions on his face body. Also, Carson was locked in his room for a week for punishment. Carson has had it rough his entire life and he is only three years old. Please keep in mind that several months ago Carson had to be life flighted to a Tallahassee hospital because he allegedly fell off of a porch and cracked his skull. For more than a week it was unknown whether Carson would live or die. At that time, Carson was being cared for by Colt and Amanda Chaney.
As of now, Colt and Amanda are being held in the Colquitt County Jail without bond and we are fighting to keep it that way. Without the courageous action taken by a babysitter, Carson could have died from his injuries.
Children in Africa are dying because of child labour. They are being used like tools in many companies.
Chocolate is one of the most preventable causes. The major chocolate companies use child labour to get their cocoa. If they did not use children, then these children would live happy lives. This petition is to try to get Hershey to stop using cocoa from companies that use child labour.
33. On Behalf of the 'Convention on Rights of the Child' 
The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is an international treaty that lays out the cultural, social, civil, political, and economic rights of children. It is overseen by the United Nations' Committee on the Rights of the Child which is comprised of members from countries around the world.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Convention affirms that every child has certain basic rights, such as, the right to survival, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation, and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The Convention also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate. In addition, the Convention forbids capital punishment for children. The CRC spells out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols.
The CRC is an agreement between various nations, in which all nations adhere to basic norms and standards regarding children’s rights. The CRC’s fundamental goal is to protect children from abuse and maltreatment when they are most vulnerable in their early years of life (“Campaign for the U.S. Ratification of the CRC,” 2007).
Today in the United states an estimated 1.4 million children are homeless, approximately 13.4 million children live in poverty, nearly 14 million children will live in homes with limited or inadequate access to nutritious food and approximately four children die each day from neglect or abuse (“Campaign for the U.S. Ratification of the CRC,” 2007).
Globally, 15 million children are orphans due to AIDS, 115 million children to do go to school, 40 million children suffer from abuse or neglect, approximately 223 million children have been forced to conduct sexual acts and between 100 and 150 million children live on the streets (“Campaign for the U.S. Ratification of the CRC,” 2007).
Although the United States has many excellent programs in place to protect children, problems of abuse, neglect, hunger and poverty and lack of adequate healthcare still need to be addressed. Ratifying the CRC would assist the United States in making children a national priority.
34. Raising the age of consensual sex to 18 in all states!
I have a niece (age 16) who was lured via the internet by a man (age 45). We were told by police that they could not charge this SICK man with a felony. They stated the legal age for consensual sex in our state was 16 which we did not know.
Now this is an adult 29 years her senior having sex with her and we could do nothing about it......that is a crime!!! Something needs to be done to these sick individuals....they get away with it too many times and it only feeds their addiction. Now, because police could not reprimend him....he is stalking her and she is not safe! They also can not enforce a protective order until he has committed a crime and caused her harm.....by this point it will be too late.
What is wrong with our justice system they are protecting the guilty instead of the innocent. My niece is not yet of age to get married, buy a lottery ticket or even vote but the government thinks she is of age to decide to have sex? Something is horribly wrong here and it needs changed before this happens to your child. It happens more than you know.
Please help me to raise the legal age for consensual sex to 18 in ALL states.
35. Amend the Child and Family Services Act
The current law allows the "Society" to go to a court of law, without the parents of the child(ren) in question being present, and swear an "information" that allows them to "apprehend" a child(ren) despite whether the information is indeed valid or out of maliscious intent.
The current law also give the CAS quotas to meet on how many children they take into care and adopt out. They get paid for every child they successfully take.
36. A BETTER DEAL FOR SINGLE PARENTS
Single parents account for 27 percent of family households with children under 18.
The number of single parents increased from three million to 10 million between 1970 and 2000.
There are millions of taxpaying working single parents in this country that are drowning in debt and unable to get assistance because they don't meet some criteria that has been specified without taken into account what these parents have to pay out on a monthly basis.
I feel that our leaders and institutions do not appreciate or allow for the special circumstances and hardships that are faced on a daily basis by single parent families.
In 2002 Bush proposed $100 Million dollar marriage initiative as a way of dealing with the "poor" single parent in this country. If the Bush administration really wants to attend to the issues of "poor" single parent ; there are many things that they could put that
$100 million dollars towards. The first is Child Support Enforcement. According to the 2000 Child Support Report, 39 billion dollars is owed to 29 million children. One month late on child support can put a family into
financial distress, two months can send the family into chaos. Single parents typically use child support to pay for childcare so they can go to work. When it does not arrive, childcare is lost resulting from lost work and
time, which calculates into, lost wages. The domino effect works well in this area. Most states require that the individual parent go without receiving support for 3 months before they can even file. What does the single parent do for money in these three months. Does the child/children not deserve the basic necessities of food, clothing and medical coverage in these three months? After three months they can send the non-paying parent to jail. While this parent is in jail we still do not receive child support or support from any agency. What are single parents suppossed to do in this time?
I think this is a worthy cause because not only is it a single parents cause but it is also a child’s cause. In this country we send so much money over seas to help other countries and children in those countries this is very noble, but there are so many children in this country that also need help.
People like us have no voice and no-one to speak up and say, “this is wrong lets try to do something about it, lets see what changes we can make to ease the burden on single parents that are struggling to do the right thing.”
I would like to ask that any single parent who is tired of struggling with no help from any government agency to contact me. vourneenm@hotmail.com. I think its time the law worked for us. If they can't hear us they can't see us. Its time we were seen and heard.
Please help me to get them to see and hear us. We need thier help now. Our Children need their help now.
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/
http://obama.senate.gov/contact/