2011-2015 WFD President Colin Allen

The Importance of the U.N. Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
By Michael Schwartz, Ph.D., LL.M.
On May 17, President Barack Obama
sent the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD), adopted by the U.N. General
Assembly on December 13, 2006, to the
U.S. Senate for ratification. According
to the president, the CRPD represents
“the principles of equality of opportunity,
nondiscrimination, respect for dignity
and individual autonomy, and inclusion
of persons with disabilities, [and] seeks to promote, protect,
and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human
rights by persons with disabilities.”
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act is a pioneering
civil rights law, it applies only to the U.S. By
ratifying the CRPD, the U.S. will lend its power to promoting
disability-related access around the world. Ratification
is now up to the U.S. Senate.
The CRPD breaks from the traditional view of
6 Discovering Deaf Worlds
people with disabilities as “objects” of
charity, medical treatment and social
protection and provides a new model
where people with disabilities are “subjects”
with rights, capable of exercising
those rights and making decisions for
themselves based on their free and informed
consent.
The CRPD states that people with
disabilities are active members of society.
It is a revolutionary human rights
instrument that reaffirms the right of
people with all types of disabilities to enjoy human
rights and fundamental freedoms. It identifies areas
where accommodations are needed for people with
disabilities to effectively exercise their rights. In short,
the CRPD is a call to combat discrimination based on
disability anywhere in the world.
Hopefully the U.S. will do the right thing and ratify
not only the CRPD but also its place in the pantheon of
human rights everywhere.