Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

US to sign UN disability rights treaty: Obama

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] President Barack Obama announced Friday that the United States will sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. At a celebration commemorating the 19th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, Obama said that US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been instructed to sign the convention next week. After the United States signs the convention, it must still be ratified by a two-thirds majority in the Senate. The US move was met with widespread approval by international and human rights organizations, as the US Bush administration declined to sign the convention at the time it was adopted, citing what it characterized as sufficient protective laws already in effect in the country. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities entered into force in May 2008, and has been signed by 140 members and ratified by 60. The landmark treaty protects the 650 million persons living with disabilities worldwide and holds that all disabled people should be treated as full-fledged citizens and completely integrated into society. The treaty also includes an Optional Protocol granting individuals the right to petition a committee of experts for violations of the Convention after all national procedures have been exhausted.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 25, 2009 (boomark / email).