Senate Rejects UN Disability Treaty
December 4, 2012
Despite strong support from disability advocacy groups, Republican
opposition led the U.S. Senate to reject an international disability rights
treaty on Tuesday.
In a vote that fell almost entirely along party lines, supporters
were unable to secure the two-thirds majority of senators needed to ratify the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The treaty calls for greater community access and a better
standard of living for people with disabilities worldwide. The measure’s chief
supporter, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said that ratifying the treaty would not
require any change to U.S. law, but would afford the nation a leadership role in
the international community on disability rights issues. What’s more, Kerry
said participation would help ensure that Americans with disabilities would
have the same protections abroad as they do domestically.
“This treaty is not about changing America, but about America
changing the world,” Kerry said just before the vote, adding that the issue had
become unnecessarily controversial in the deeply-partisan body. “This treaty is
a test of the Senate. It’s a test of whether this body is still capable of voting
for change.”
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