This morning the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted by a 13-6 margin to send the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to the full Senate. There is currently no indication of when a floor vote will be scheduled, though Chairman John Kerry offered, “I hope we will get [this] to the floor very, very soon.”
ParentalRights.org opposes this treaty because it poses a threat to the traditional role of parents in the upbringing of their children with special needs, and because it sets the dangerous precedent of expressing social, economic, and cultural entitlements as legal rights and obligations.
Senators who stood with us to oppose ratification of this treaty include: Senator Corker of Tennessee, Senator Risch of Idaho, Senator Lee of Utah, Senator Rubio of Florida, Senator DeMint of South Carolina, and Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma.
All ten Democrats and three Republican senators – Senators Richard Lugar (IL), John Barrasso (WY), and Johnny Isakson (GA) – voted in favor of the treaty.
Today’s discussion emphasized the intent of the Committee that ratification of the treaty should create no new obligations or laws in the United States – which is good news for us. But it then raises the question: If the treaty is to have no effect, why should we ratify it? And why should other nations of the world take our ratification seriously when it is accompanied by the understanding that we will take no action to apply it in our country?
Please Call Again
In light of this morning’s hearing, it is time to call your senators again. Even if you just called them yesterday, our effort starts over right now. Yesterday’s call was about the hearing; today’s call is about the floor vote.
In your own words, please give your senators the following message:
“I oppose ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. If our Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations are not air tight, the language of this treaty will severely damage the traditional role of parents with disabled children in making important decisions for their children. If they are not air tight, we could be obligating ourselves to sweeping changes in U.S. law to meet the demands of this treaty.
“And if our Reservations are air tight, and our nation takes on no new obligations under this treaty, then it makes no sense to adopt it. Our ratification will not make it any more binding on other countries, and it will not change the quality of the example we already set by domestic law. We are already leading the world. We do not need to spend the money every 4 years to ask for the U.N.’s opinion on how we are doing.
“I sincerely urge my Senator to oppose ratifying this treaty. The potential unintended consequences are too great a risk for a mere symbolic gesture.”
- Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator by name; or
- Visit ParentalRights.org/States and click on your state. Your Senators’ D.C. phone numbers are listed at the bottom of your state’s page; or
- Visit them online, usually at (senator’s name).Senate.gov. (Example: Webb.senate.gov.)
(If your senator voted today to oppose CRPD, do not call their office – but send them an email thanking them for their position.)
Several senators clearly want the CRPD to pass. Right now only a few are standing up for the rights of parents by actively opposing it. But based on today’s hearing and the word from the Hill, there are still many senators undecided on this vote.
So thank you for taking the time to call. Your voice can make a tremendous difference in whether or not this treaty gets the two-thirds vote required for ratification. We only need 34 “no” votes to stop it. So please call your senators today.
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Direct of Communications & Research
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