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Children, unlike adults, possess two sets of human rights. <ref>{{REFjournal |last=Hill |first= |init=G |author-link=George Hill |title=The case against circumcision |journal=Journal of Men's Health and Gender |date=2007 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=318-23 |url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=04ace5046cc27f01b8fbe4aa359c059778983912 |quote= |format=PDF |accessdate=2023-10-01}}</ref> [[UNICEF]] says:

The General Assembly adopted the ''[[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]]'' (ICCPR) in 1967.<ref name="iccpr1967">{{REFdocument

The General Assembly adopted the ''Convention on the Rights of the Child'' ([[UN-CRC]]) in 1989 (Twenty-two years later). The [[UN-CRC ]] does not include certain rights of children that were already protected by the ICCPR.  ==Application of the ICCPR to non-therapeutic circumcision of children== Articles 1, 7, 9, and 24 are applicable to male and female non-therapeutic circumcision of children. Each nation that is a state-party under the ICCPR, which took effect in 1976, pledges to enforce those rights for its citizens. ====Article one====Article one provides in part:1. All peoples have the right of self-determination, "By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Self-determination is the right to decide for one's self. This provides for [[genital autonomyICCPR]], which is the right to decide for one's self if one's genitals are to be surgically altered. [[Genital autonomy]] is provided by delaying a non-therapeutic surgical operation on a child until the child is of age at which he or she can decide for one's self. ====Article seven====Article 7 provides:<blockquote>No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.</blockquote>

Non-therapeutic circumcision of children is cruel because it permanently deprives the victim of the optimum sexual function and pleasure for all of his life. It is degrading because it amputates a portion of the penis and renders it less functional. ====Article nine====Article 9 provides:<blockquote>Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person.</blockquote> Security Application of person is the right ICCPR to bodily integrity. Bodily integrity is compromised when part of the penis is amputated, so non-therapeutic circumcision of non-consenting children violates this provision of international law. ====Article twenty''See [[International_Covenant_on_Civil_and_Political_Rights#Application_of_the_ICCPR_to_non-four====Article 24 providestherapeutic_circumcision_of_children|ICCPR:<blockquote>Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, Application of the right ICCPR to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State.</blockquote> When a child is denied protection from harmful, tissue-removing, non-therapeutic circumcision, this right is violatedof children]].''

The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the ''Convention on the Rights of the Child'' ([[UN-CRC]]) on 20 November 1989.<ref name="crc1989">{{REFdocument

}}</ref> The [[UN-CRC ]] does not replace the [[ICCPR]], which had been previously adopted by the General Assembly. The [[ICCPR ]] already provides certain rights to children. The [[UN-CRC ]] adds additional rights that children need for protection due to their immaturity and vulnerability. The two documents must be read together to receive the complete picture. Unfortunately, many seem to believe that rights provided by the [[UN-CRC ]] are the only human rights of children, but that view is incorrect.

Male circumcision always results in the permanent and irreversible loss of the [[foreskin]], a structure with protective, immunological, sexual, and sensory functions. The loss of the protective and immunological functions are harmful to physical health. The loss of the sensory and sexual functions are harmful to [[https://en.intactiwiki.org/index.php/Sexual_effects_of_circumcision| sexual]] and [[Psychological issues of male circumcision| mental]] health. We have long known that non-therapeutic circumcision of children sometimes results in [[death]]. [[Douglas Gairdner]] (1949) reported circumcision caused nineteen deaths in England and Wales in 1946.<ref name="fate1949">{{GairdnerDM 1949}}</ref> Bollinger (2010) estimated 117 the circumcision-related mortality rate of 0.9/100,000 circumcisions (more than 100 deaths ) per year in the United States.<ref name="bollinger2010">{{BollingerD 2010}}</ref>

In addition to possible death, [[bleeding]], infection, and surgical misadventure that may result in various injuries, including loss of the penis are more common occurences.

The religious rights of the child are often overlooked. The religious rights of the child are enunciated by Article 18 of the [[ICCPR ]] and also by the [[UN-CRC ]] Article 14. The right to modify or not modify one's body in accordance with one's religious views is a human right. That right belongs to the individual and no one else. A decision by a parent to circumcise a child tramples on the child's religious rights, so no decision should be taken until the child is of age to decide for himself.

The Congress of the United States of America, therefore, historically has been protective of the sovereign rights of the United States and reluctant to surrender them by treaty. The [[ICCPR ]] and the [[UN-CRC ]] are multi-lateral treaties.

The United States Senate ratified the [[ICCPR ]] in 1992, but it doing so, it took an extraordinary number of reservations, understandings, and declarations. With these reservations, the [[ICCPR ]] does not provide a cause for action in United States courts.<ref>{{REFdocument

}}</ref> The effect is to render the [[ICCPR ]] toothless in the United States.

Madeleine Albright, then ambassador to the United Nations, signed the [[UN-CRC ]] on behalf of the United States on 16 February 1995. The [[UN-CRC]], however, is at variance with United States law, so it has never been submitted to the Senate of the United States for ratification. The [[United States of America]] is the only country in the world that is not a state-party to the [[UN-CRC]], so the [[UN-CRC ]] has only moral authority in the United States.

The [[ICCPR ]] and the [[UN-CRC ]] are multilateral international treaties and are a part of international law. Treaties are superior law to ordinary domestic law, because they contain various commitments made by each state-party. When there is a conflict between domestic law and international treaty law, the treaty law is supreme while the domestic law which is in conflict is without force or effect, or in other words, a is nullified.<ref>[https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/1_1_1969.pdf Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties] (1969), Article 27.</ref>Most nations are a state-party to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

|publisher=[[Doctors Opposing Circumcision(D.O.C.)]]