madam president i voted against the kinnock report with a very heavy heart because the problems the report identifies are very important
tragedies are happening all over the world but the basis of her report is the un convention on the rights of the child and we move on we do more and more on the basis of a very flawed convention
this convention was always a compromise it was always a mixed bag
on the one hand it has many good things but on the other hand it has some absolutely inappropriate parts
it was written in nineteen eighty-nine in an age before we knew about predators
for example it has rights to full access to the mass media in all communication to children and vice versa
so we have based this whole report on a very flawed convention which also places the state as the only arbitrator of the best interests of the child as opposed to the family which in fact sets the parents as the nurturers and the guardians but not as the determiners of rights
so i had to vote against it
it also includes abortion which has no place in children's rights
