Should the U.S. Step Up On Disability Rights?
President Obama has been talking the talk, calling on Americans to step up to a world that is more connected than ever. As Twitter feeds from Iran and Facebook updates from every corner of the globe become everyday happenings in the U.S., many are asking the question, why haven't we stepped up to the plate and joined the global community in an effort to protect the disabled?
650 million people -- that's 10% of the world -- live with a disability. That means they are the world's biggest minority group. What's worse is that a large chunk of the world's poorest people suffer disabilities that make climbing out of poverty even harder.
So what is the global community doing about it? In 2006, the United Nations passed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (or CRPD). Since then, 139 countries have signed it and 58 countries have put its laws into force. The U.S. is not one of these 139 countries.
Some people say that our own law, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, is enough to protect disabled Americans. But many others say that signing the CRPD will show that Americans are committed to protecting their own citizens with more legal measures and dedicated to the rights of the disabled all over the world. After all, for decades American presidents have talked about the U.S. as a champion of human rights for all.
What do you think? Should the U.S. join the many other countries that have signed and ratified the CRPD treaty? Or our law, the ADA, enough and all that we are responsible for? Let us know!
Then, see why Do Something's Chief Old Person, Nancy Lublin, thinks Obama needs to stand up for the disabled.
Like Us
Related Projects
Millbrook High School Special Needs Cheerleading
For people to understand that people with special...
Comments
I am fully supportive in the signing of the CRPD.
As of now there is not enough assistance provided to people living with actual disabilities.
My mother has been fully disabled for 12 years now (from fully nerve damage), and now she might lose the insurance that helps to pay for her therapy. My brother has a form of autism called asperger, and he has not been able to be put into a slower paced class, due to budget cuts to the schools special education and disabilities department.
So I say sign the document and let the people who really need the help get it.
We should sign it!
This is one issue that hits close to home for me; my younger brother has a mental disability and because we do not offer enough protection and services, he is getting the short end of the stick. If more people would advocate for people with disabilities, they would get the services they need.
LW