Catching up...Dec 4 DHR: United States Senate Fails to Ratify the CRPD
America Remains One of the Few UN Countries that won't Support the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
My bad - I should have posted about this last week.
Image Description: The acronym “CRPD” appears behind a red “Do not” sign
It’s a significant enough moment in disability history that it’s worth writing about even though I missed the date.
On December 4, 2012, the United States Senate voted againt ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
A lot of work went into this convention, including making plain-language versions of the text available in eight languages (and in a number of fully accessible formats, in Greek). It’s because there’s an English plain-text version available that I can easily tell you that it’s based on these ideas:
People are free to make their own choices
No one will be discriminated against
Disabled people have the same rights to be included in society as anyone else.
Disabled people should be respected for who they are
Everyone should have equal opportunities
Everyone should have equal access
Men and women should have equal opportunities
Disabled children should be respected for who they are as they grow up.
The document expands on the list as it continues, and specifies what countries can do do ensure that disabled citizens are living freely and safely in communities of their choice, enjoying the same rights as all other citizens.
The UN requested that member countries ratify the CRPD, to indicate their commitment to taking on its suggested activities to improve life both for its disabled citizens and to visitors to their country. Then-President Barack Obama signed the CRPD in 2009; but the United States Senate didn’t ratify when they had a chance in 2012 (and 2013), and have not ratified to this day, “largely due to a reluctance to submit to international law on a domestic policy matter.” https://www.voanews.com/a/years-after-us-disabilities-act-no-plans-to-ratify-un-treaty-it-inspired-/6675363.html
“Reluctance” is putting it mildly. I remember the Senate’s refusal to ratify the CRPD, and some of the writing about it by Republican Senate members at the time - then-Senator of Florida Rick Santorum in particular. I can’t access the opinion piece for The Daily Beast that he wrote on the topic as it’s now behind a paywall and I refuse to give The Daily Beast money, but here it is for those who can access it:
Even a dozen years later I can remember thinking as I read it, “This is some of the most paranoid writing I’ve ever read.”
Disappointing
For those of you that, like me, would rather not pay for access to The Daily Beast, here are some the reasons that Santorum was rallying the Republicans to vote against ratifying the CRPD, culled from other sources released around that time. He believed that the CRPD:
Threatened US sovereignty
Put American parents of disabled children under international law re: parenting regulations
Promoted, in its use of “sexual and rreproductive health”, an agenda to create a global right to abortion
Imposed on Americans’ parental right to homeschool their disabled children
Even though some Republicans changed their stance on the CRPD in 2013, the Senate again failed to ratify the legislation.
It’s disappointing, for a couple of big reasons.
The CRPD is based on the Americans with Disabilities Act, so the two are very similar - and America passed the ADA in 1990.
Out of the UN’s 193 member nations, 185 have ratified the CRPD.
Sometimes, if I take the time to listen carefully to people on the Right on the political spectrum, I can at least understand why they think the way they do on some things, even if I still don’t agree with them. I’m not sure I want to listen to anyone on this one. I don’t like that I feel that way, but there it is. As lawyer Larry Feingold said about the CRPD:
The CRPD embodies principles already incorporated in United States law in the Americans with Disabilities Act and elsewhere. If ratified, it would not change U.S. law and won’t cost the United States one penny.
You can’t make it much clearer than that, yet it still hasn’t happened.
Like I said, disappointing.
I researched this post using these sources:
32 Years After US Disability Act, No Plans to Renew The US Treaty It Inspired
Rick Santorum’s Most Recent Enemy? Millions of Disabled People Around the World
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Easy Read
What Prevents the US from Signing the UN Disabilities Treaty?