7:49pm October 23, 2013

➸ Myths and Facts: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) | The Arc Blog

clatterbane:

queerability:

For the last two years, The Arc has been working with numerous disability advocacy groups to garner support for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which will promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities across the globe. There are many misconceptions about the CRPD, and we would like to clarify some of the most common myths and facts.

Myths and Facts About the CRPD:

Myth #1: Sovereignty will be lost if the treaty is ratified
FACTS: Sovereignty means that the U.S. is protected as an independent governing body and no outside organization (like the UN) or another country can compel the U.S. to do anything. The same RUD (RUD = legal binding condition added to treaties) is attached to the Disability Treaty that is attached to all human rights treaties passed by the U.S. Senate in order to protect U.S. sovereignty ensuring that in no way can the treaty compel the U.S. to do anything and that any changes in law would have to go through our own traditional legislative procedures.

Myth #2: The treaty will require funding and support for abortion
FACTS: Abortion is not mentioned in the treaty but opponents of the treaty lead folks to think it is. There is nothing in this treaty that changes abortion rights in the U.S. It simply states that people with disabilities should have the same access to health care as people without disabilities. It is a statement of non-discrimination NOT a change in U.S. law or policy.

Myth #3: The treaty will take away homeschooling/parental rights
FACTS: The CRPD is a non-discrimination treaty that does NOT change our law but confirms our commitment to disability rights and allows us to impact disability rights globally. That means NO changes to U.S. laws covering parental rights laws or homeschooling. Read this news article to learn more.

I have to add again that if you think your approach to homeschooling or raising kids in general (disabled or not) might be construed as violating their basic human rights, you’re doing it WRONG.

(That would, of course, be beyond the bizarre zero-sum approach to human rights that so many people seem to insist is reasonable.)

Unfortunately, the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association (and their partner organization Parental Rights) have managed to raise a lot of noise from their community against the CRPD. They beat us in the first battle in December 2012 (we lost the first Senate vote by a narrow margin of 5 votes, we need a two-thirds super majority to win). Which means the rest of us need to be louder in order to get the CRPD ratified this year.

No, the next vote on the CRPD has not yet been scheduled. But we are moving closer to a date (possible early November) for a hearing on the CRPD in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is an important preliminary step to voting the CRPD out of the Committee to be debated (and then voted on) by the full Senate floor.

For more resources on the CRPD, check these:

http://disabilitytreaty.org
Official CRPD website by the U.S. International Council on Disabilities (will be renovated soon)

http://bit.ly/Resources4CRPD
Resources for learning about the CRPD and taking action

http://usicd.org/index.cfm/crpdupdates
News and action alerts on the CRPD. Also sign up for USICD’s CRPD action alert mailing list.

http://facebook.com/RatifyCRPD
Facebook page for grassroots CRPD advocates, used to exchange more ideas for taking action

http://www.handicap-international.us/support_the_disability_treaty
SIGN THE PETITION to support the CRPD! And ask your friends to do the same!

Please keep reblogging this and other #CRPD tag items until we win!