Senate Committee to Vote on U N Disabilities Treaty on Tuesday, July 22nd (595 hits)
The U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee will vote on the dangerous UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) on Tuesday, July 22.
Now is the time to let the Senate hear loud and clear that Americans are firmly opposed to surrendering our sovereignty, parental rights, and the rights of people with disabilities to unelected, unaccountable UN bureaucrats. Please call and email your two U.S. senators right now and urge them to reject the UNCRPD. We need every single homeschool parent and concerned citizen to make their voice heard. Bad bills can be repealed. But once a treaty is ratified there is no going back.
You can reach your senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, by using our Legislative Toolbox to type your address and find their contact information, or by using HSLDA’s emailing tool to send a prewritten letter to your senators by filling out your information and then clicking the red “Take Action” button. You are also able to edit the prewritten letter to put it into your own words.
Action Requested Your message can be as simple as the following:
“I urge you to oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This treaty surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats and will threaten parental care of children with disabilities. Our nation already has laws to protect Americans with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families by giving bureaucrats the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child with disabilities, not the child’s parents.”
We do not have the votes to stop the UNCRPD in the Foreign Relations Committee. That is why we urge you to call not only the senators on the committee, but also your own two senators. Please call even if your senator supports the treaty, or even if he or she opposes it. Every senator needs to hear from us. The following senators are on the Foreign Relations Committee:
Democrats Robert Menendez (NJ) (202) 224-4744 Barbara Boxer (CA) (202) 224-3553 Benjamin L. Cardin (MD) (202) 224-4524 Tom Udall (NM) (202) 224-6621 Edward Markey (MA) (202) 224-2742 Chris Murphy (CT) (202) 224-4041 Tim Kaine (VA) (202) 224-4024 Jeanne Shaheen (NH) (202) 224-2841 Christopher Coons (DE) (202) 224-5042 Richard J. Durbin (IL) (202) 224-2152
Republicans Bob Corker (TN) (202) 224-3344 Ron Johnson (WI) (202) 224-5323 James E. Risch (ID) (202) 224-2752 Jeff Flake (AZ) (202) 224-4521 John McCain (AZ) (202) 224-2235 John Barrasso (WI) (202) 224-6441 Rand Paul (KY) (202) 224-4343 Marco Rubio (FL) (202) 224-3041
Background HSLDA opposes the UNCRPD because it says “in all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” If ratified by the Senate, government officials could use this section to override parents’ decisions for their child with a disability.
Other provisions of the UNCRPD threaten U.S. sovereignty and our fundamental right to govern ourselves, promotes abortion, and require a national registry of all children with disabilities (the term “disability” isn’t even defined). Our nation already has the best laws in the world to protect Americans with disabilities, and we use our leadership and foreign aid overseas to urge nations to protect their own citizens with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will weaken U.S. leadership by replacing our nation’s proven record on disability rights with UN “leadership.”
Some Senate staff may argue that the UNCRPD isn’t dangerous because it can be amended with reservations, understandings, and declarations (“RUDs”). No one has seen the proposed RUDs yet, so we don’t even know if they are well-written. But more importantly, RUDs are fatally flawed. The UNCRPD itself says in Article 46 “Reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the present Convention shall not be permitted.” Who decides? The UN. International law experts have made the same arguments, and we cannot trust our freedom to five justices on the Supreme Court making the right ruling. In addition, a future Senate could withdraw RUDs.
Some Senate staff may also argue that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Bond v. United States addresses our concerns. We answered this argument here. Bond was an incredibly narrow ruling, and it never addressed the treaty power issue. In fact, the concurring opinions by Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito prove that our concerns about UN treaties are completely justified.
The good news is your action defeated the UNCRPD in 2012. By the grace of God, we can do it again. Please call right now and please also forward this email to your friends. You can visit HSLDA’s action page here to learn more about the CRPD, and you can read the text of the CRPD here.
For liberty,
Michael P. Farris, JD, LLM Chairman, HSLDA
• • • P.S. We greatly value you and your support—it is a privilege to serve you! If you or someone you know is not a member of HSLDA, will you consider taking a moment today to join or recommend us? Your support enables us to defend individual families threatened by government officials and protect homeschooling freedom for all. Join now >>
