"U.S. Fails to Support International Disability Rights"
An Op-Ed from The Washington Post,
http://www.washingtonpost.com :
Human Rights for the Disabled
By Dick Thornburgh and Alan Reich
Wednesday, November 3, 2004; Page A15
The Washington Post
A constitutional court in a Southeast Asian country upholds
a decision that disqualifies an accomplished lawyer from
serving in the judiciary because he uses a wheelchair.
A court in a European nation awards damages to plaintiffs
who sue a hotel, complaining that their holiday was ruined
when they were forced to share the company of a guest who
held her fork with her feet because she was born without
arms.
A girl who has a mental disability is taken from her home
in
in a cage; she soon dies of malnutrition and exposure.
Are these human rights issues? Matters for international
legal concern? They certainly are if one agrees that such
abuse and discrimination are unacceptable in a caring world
community. The United Nations concurs, and it is drafting a
convention to provide international guidelines for the
rights of more than 600 million people with disabilities.
The convention will provide people with disabilities the
same compassionate legal protection that women, children,
refugees and other vulnerable populations have under
international human rights law.
But does the
Bush administration has taken the position that disability
is neither a human rights issue nor a predicate for
international law but strictly a domestic policy matter.
Because the
legislation -- the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) --
the U.N. initiative is mooted by our own legal
accomplishment, according to the State and Justice
departments. Problems faced by people with disabilities in
other countries, they imply, should be dealt with by their
respective governments.
To be fair, the Bush administration does not actively
oppose the convention; it simply announced early on that
the
has offered "technical assistance" to the U.N. committee,
if it is requested, and sent a small delegation of
government representatives to observe the negotiating
sessions. But is this a sufficiently worthy and engaged
response to so significant a global initiative from the one
nation that all the others view as the pioneer for
disability rights?
When the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed and
signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, it
was greeted as a welcome model for reform around the world.
For more than a decade it has inspired progress and
legislation by other countries seeking to address
disability discrimination in their own legal codes.
Still, fewer than 50 nations -- among 191 U.N. member
states -- have adopted similar laws against discrimination
based on disability. More than 100 have yet to establish
comparable protections for their disabled citizens.
Historically, international law has been the crucial
catalyst for development of effective national laws,
particularly in defense of human rights. After World War
II, starting with the
universality of certain values and norms. We championed the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United
Nations. This grand notion is the basis for all the U.N.
human rights instruments, which need to be augmented by
including the rights of the world's citizens with
disabilities.
Here is a remarkable opportunity to share
national experience with our global partners -- to export
the innovative concepts of the
Nations and to offer our expertise in an area of the law
where we excel in legal precept and in practical
application. If the
course and joins in this enlightened effort to advance the
U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities,
we will seize a chance to show the world the best of
have offered their services to help advance this U.N.
process. But for its first two years, the
sent only to observe, did not include one person with a
disability. This is equivalent to sending an all-male
delegation to a U.N. meeting on women's rights.
The
drafting committee meets at the United Nations in January,
by sending an appropriate delegation of
disabilities to represent our government and deliver the
message that the
Military triumphs and foreign aid packages won't ensure
human progress if
international heritage as the founder of human rights
concerns at the United Nations.
Dick Thornburgh was
and undersecretary general of the United Nations in 1992-
93. Alan Reich, a former deputy assistant secretary of
state, is president of the National Organization on
Disability. They serve as vice chairman and chairman,
respectively, of the World Committee on Disability.
(c) 2004 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21060-2004Nov3.html
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