Foreign Policy In Focus | Ratify the UN Disability Treaty

 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, or the Convention) is the first human rights treaty of the 21st century. The CRPD is also the first legally binding international instrument with the power specifically to protect the rights of the world's largest minority, some 650 million persons with disabilities.

Adopted in December 2006, along with an optional protocol providing for communications and inquiry procedures, the Convention is currently in operation. Some 139 states have signed and 58 states have ratified the Convention, but not the United States. Nor did the United States actively participate in or otherwise facilitate the CRPD's negotiations and drafting, despite a wealth of technical expertise garnered from years of experience with the seminal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)…..

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Foreign Policy In Focus | Ratify the UN Disability Treaty