AFA of PA ACTION ALERT

July 24, 2012

Issue

Postponed from last week:  UN Treaty Up for a Vote on Thursday

Details

A vote had been scheduled last Thursday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD).  However, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) led an effort to prevent that from happening.  Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced at that time that he will instead hold the markup on July 26, the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

It has “broad bipartisan support” which is being fed by misinformation.  Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) – arguing that it would merely extend the protections of the ADA to people with disabilities around the world, including Americans living abroad.

What this treaty will actually do is usurp the Americans With Disabilities Act and give the United Nations control over how the disabled is treated,.  It will also take away parental rights as this is a way of sneaking in portions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child!

Article 7 of the UNCRPD gives government the ability to override every decision of a parent of disabled children if the government thinks that its views are in “the best interest of the child.  Click here to read our alert from last week for more reasons why this treaty should not be ratified.

Action Steps

 

Senator Bob Casey, Jr. is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Click here to send him an email and call his Harrisburg office at (717) 231-7540 or Toll Free: (866) 461-9159.

The same message as last week:  “The Americans with Disabilities Act has done a good job in helping the disabled in this country; this treaty will not help the disabled.  Treaties supersede US law and this treaty will take away parental rights. Vote ‘NO’ on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

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