My Most Embarrassing Moment in Jordan

This evening brought my most embarrassing moment in Jordan so far: trying to explain to my Jordanian classmates why the United States is one of only two nations in the world to not ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The other country is Somalia.

The context was a guest lecture by a distinguished European human rights lawyer. My professor had invited her to explain the UNCRC and provide a background on child human rights issues. She gave a fine lecture and she wasn't out to beat up the United States; she mentioned a few times that two countries hadn't ratified the treaty, but she never specified which countries until a student teased it out of her in the question and answer session. I think she felt kind of sorry and embarrassed for the United States; she was apologetic and gave a vague, rather lame explanation that "there are a number of reasons" the US has not yet ratified the treaty. Still, the damage was done.

As the only American in the room, I cringed when she named the countries. The United States and Somalia. And we're not talking about controversial global warming treaties, we're talking about basic rights of children. I mean, really, how much more embarrassing could this get? I could see the stir among the students and I could imagine the rolling eyes. I've heard enough Jordanian frustration about American hypocrisy to guess what my fellow students were thinking: Of course, it would be America. The country that invades Muslim countries to promote freedom, preaches human rights around the world while condoning torture at home, and despises international organizations that try to solve global problems.

These Jordanian conceptions are based on serious misunderstandings of the United States are I believe they are largely wrong. I do whatever I can to represent the US in a more favorable light. But it sure doesn't help when such glaring examples confirm all the worst stereotypes about the United States. President Obama apparently agrees, as he has called the US failure to ratify the convention "embarrassing."

I know very little about human rights law and don't feel qualified to weigh the arguments for or against ratification. On the one hand, I think there is room to debate about the convention itself, the proper relationship between the state and parents, the effect of UN treaties on state sovereignty, etc. On the other hand, if you evaluate actual pragmatic effects in the world, it seems to me that the damage to American credibility by refusing the treaty (it's us and Somalia vs. the world, mind you) does far more damage than any deficiencies in the treaty itself.