<P> The United States government played an active role in the drafting of the Convention and signed it on 16 February 1995, but has not ratified it . It has been claimed that American opposition to the Convention stems primarily from political and religious conservatives . For example, The Heritage Foundation sees "a civil society in which moral authority is exercised by religious congregations, family, and other private associations is fundamental to the American order". and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) argues that the CRC threatens homeschooling . </P> <P> The United States had permitted the execution and life imprisonment of juvenile offenders, in contravention of the Article 37 of the Convention . In 2005, a Supreme Court decision declared juvenile executions to be unconstitutional as "cruel and unusual punishment"; in 2012, the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders . </P> <P> State laws regarding the practice of closed adoption may also require overhaul in light of the Convention's position that children have a right to identity from birth . </P> <P> During his 2008 campaign for President, Senator Barack Obama described the failure to ratify the Convention as "embarrassing" and promised to review the issue but he never did . No President of the United States has submitted the treaty to the United States Senate requesting its advice and consent to ratification since the US signed it in 1995 . </P>

Convention on the rights of the child ratification