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}}</ref> That ''Covenant'', which is international law, has several provisions, which are applicable to the circumcision of children.
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==
==Specific children's rights applicable to non-therapeutic circumcision==
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
|title=Convention on the Rights of the Child
|language=
|date=1989-11-20
|accessdate=2019-11-06
}}</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.
==Application of the CRC to non-therapeutic circumcision of children==
It is clear from the discussion above that non-therapeutic circumcision of a child is a violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of that child.
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.
==Acceptance of international human rights law in the United States of America==
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi Article Six] of the Constitution of the United States makes treaties part of the "supreme law of the land".
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 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.
==Human Rights and non-therapeutic child circumcision==
</blockquote>
==Superiority of international treaty law==
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, 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.
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