Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Floor Speech: Senator Coons calls for ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
As Delivered on November 27, 2012
I rise today as not just the senator from Delaware but also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to speak to the topic before us of the Convention and whether or not the United States should ratify a Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Our country has long been a global leader in recognizing and protecting the basic rights, the human rights of all people, including those with disabilities and of working hard to be at the forefront of a global movement to improve access to the basic and essential aspects of productive daily life for those with disabilities. Now today we have the opportunity to help extend those rights, the same rights that disabled Americans have to other people around the world. If we have that opportunity, Mr. President, to promote freedom and human rights, why wouldn't we ensure these protections that apply to Americans, apply to them abroad as well and to others? Some of the nearly one billion fellow citizens of the world who live with disabilities.
This treaty that's before us today was adopted by the United Nations in 2006 with 153 nations as signatories, and so far 116 as ratifying parties. And it has been six long years that the United States has not joined as a ratifying party. This treaty has passed with strong bipartisan support through the Foreign Relations Committee in a vote we took back in July after hearings, and it's been nearly six months since that vote. And yet this treaty sadly faces opposition here on the floor of the United States Senate.
This Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was negotiated during the Bush Administration and it enjoys strong bipartisan support and I am proud to join Senators McCain, Barrasso, Moran, Durbin, Harkin, Udall and many others who've been advocating for its passage since March.
It would, as has been said, not require any changes to U.S. law and would have no impact on our federal budget. It would instead promote U.S. business interests by creating a level playing field for U.S. companies by equalizing accessibility requirements that foreign businesses must meet, and it would create new markets for innovative U.S. businesses with expertise in standards and technologies that help ease the lives of those with disabilities. And it would, at least as importantly, promote access, mobility, and inclusion for disabled Americans abroad, especially wounded veterans.
And last, but not least, it would protect the rights of families to homeschool their children if they choose to do so, a topic on which my office received many concerned calls from constituents. We heard directly from the Justice Department during our hearing on the Foreign Relations Committee on this Convention that ratification of this treaty will not in any way erode the rights of parents with disabled children to educate their children at home if they so choose.
In short, Mr. President, ratification only benefits the United States and protects Americans. The world has long looked to us as a global leader, as a moral compass, as a defender of freedom and human rights, and in my view, we owe a great debt to many who have served in this chamber before us, Mr. President, including principally among them Senator Bob Dole, who, along with many others, led the initial fight for the ratification of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The least we can do to people with disabilities all around the world is to step up to the plate, to ratify this Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities without delay. And it is my hope that this Senate, in a bipartisan way, can come together in the spirit of unity to protect dignity and human rights for all. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for the ratification of this most important treaty.
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