The
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With
Disabilities yesterday fell five votes short of the required two-thirds in the Senate.
The Washington Times reports:
Conservatives’ deep-seated suspicion of the United Nations was on high display in the Senate Tuesday, when Republicans blocked ratification of a U.N. treaty aimed at ending discrimination against the disabled despite assurances it wouldn’t affect U.S. sovereignty.
Supporters of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities say the treaty — based in part on the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 — is non-binding and wouldn’t change or challenge U.S. law.
But conservative groups — who long have considered the U.N. a threat to U.S. self-rule — weren’t convinced the committee created by the treaty to promote the rights of disabled people globally has only an advisory role, and campaigned hard against it.
“The U.S. Congress, American civil society and special interest groups are far better positioned to conduct such reviews than a committee of disability experts from Bangladesh, China, Qatar and Tunisia, which are current members of the [treaty] committee,” said Steven Groves, who heads the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom Project.
The Family Research Council said the complex treaty would open a Pandora’s box of legal headaches for the U.S. “This is a treaty with 50 Articles, and anyone who suggests … that it doesn’t require ‘one change to U.S. law’ must be waiting to pass it to find out what’s in it,” said a statement on the group’s website after the vote.
