Cooler heads prevailed on Disabilities Treaty

The Hill, a newspaper for people who work on U.S. federal legislation, ran Dr. Susan Yoshihara’s op ed today on the defeat of the vote on the UN Disability treaty.

Dr. Yoshihara, who participated in the negotiations of the UN treaty, anticipated the political attacks that may come against the dissenting senators. Her op ed calmly explains why the Disability Treaty is a bad deal for Americans . . .

Cooler heads prevailed on Disabilities Treaty

The Senate’s defeat of the move to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities was not a defeat for Americans with disabilities, though it may seem that way to many. That is because of the vast disparity between our aspirations for this treaty on one hand, and the limitations of its text and deep flaws in the UN system in which it will be interpreted.

The 38 Senators who voted against ratification should be congratulated for seeing the basic contradiction in calls for ratification. Proponents said we could have it both ways — an international rights committee powerful enough to change other countries’ laws but too weak to interfere with our own.

Read more here . . .

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