From Reuters (7/30/09):
U.S. signs U.N.
disabilities pact, in change of course
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
- The United States signed a U.N. convention on Thursday aimed at ensuring
equal rights for the world's 650 million disabled people, a pact that the
former Bush administration refused to endorse.
In a ceremony at U.N.
headquarters, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice inked the pact, billed by the United
Nations as the first human rights treaty of the 21st century. It came into force
last year.
The 32-page U.N.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities outlaws all forms of
discrimination at work on the basis of disability, including in hiring,
promotion and working conditions. It requires equal pay for work of equal value.
It also calls on
signatory states to promote the employment of disabled people, including
through "affirmative action" programs that favor them.
The pact stipulates the
disabled may not be excluded from mainstream education systems. It demands that
governments provide them with physical access to transportation, schools,
housing, medical facilities and workplaces.
Bush administration
officials had said the document was weaker than the 1990 U.S. Americans with
Disabilities Act and therefore could complicate enforcement of that law.
But Rice said the United
States was "very pleased to join 141 other countries that have signed this
convention in pursuit of a more just world." Sixty-one countries have
ratified the pact.
President Barack Obama
would soon submit the convention for Senate approval, Rice said at the ceremony
attended by representatives of U.S. disability groups.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior
adviser to Obama, told the gathering the signing was a "historic step toward
advancing our global commitment to the fundamental human rights for all persons
with disabilities."
She also announced the
creation of a senior-level position at the State Department to develop a
strategy to promote the rights of disabled people around the world.
The signing underlined
the more favorable attitude toward the United Nations of the Obama
administration than that of its predecessor, which often criticized the world
body and was leery of international treaties that could have an impact on U.S.
law.
Human Rights Watch, one
of several advocacy groups that welcomed the signing, said the United States
had signed six out of nine core international human rights treaties but
ratified only three -- on racial discrimination, civil and political rights,
and torture.
Jamil Dakwar of the
American Civil Liberties Union said that Thursday was "a great day for the
rights of people with disabilities and a step forward for the U.S. human rights
movement."
Signing a treaty is one thing. Doing something about it is something else. One PWD in the white house isn't exactly a light step forward. And token appointments, even to the Supreme Court, don't mean jack. EVERY government program currently on the books, redlines people with disabilities into lesser paying jobs. The White House refuses to even investigation allegations of physical intimidation of myself by the Department of Labor, multiple abrogations of the Rehab Act by cabinet members, or even the White House suspending the Rehab Act itself (the White House website violates 508).
When Obama does things like provide equal funding for programs, calls his buddy Duval Patrick out for being a discrimatory prick for asking for excemption from the Rehab Act and the ADA for all bailout funds in Massachusetts, and includes us as "minorities" in the next SBA stim bill, as he should have done in the last one, not to mention not appoint judges as horrific as his fourth circuit nominee to the court of appeals, then we might be getting somewhere. Until then we're just flapping lips. And for more stories about police brutality against PWDs, check out my website below.
Posted by: Marguerite Arnold | August 03, 2009 at 05:04 PM
I read Ms. Jarrett's statement and it is a just a lot of words that say nothing. The Obama administration "talks" a good game - but is doing nothing. The next statement about PWD will be made in July 2010 - not before then.
Posted by: Patricia Sprofera | August 03, 2009 at 08:09 PM
so Obama thinks the UN can do something to help people with disabilities across the world? What a joke! The UN is just a big financial suck out of our paychecks and filled with crooks and politicians and other parasites living off the backs of the poor people at home. Shut the UN down!
Posted by: John Smith | August 04, 2009 at 12:30 AM