UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Xinhua)
-- The United States signed the United Nations convention on the rights of
people with disabilities here on Thursday, marking the first international human
rights treaty the U.S. has signed in nearly a decade.
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Permanent representative of the United
States to the United Nations Susan Rice (C) signs the UN convention on the
rights of people with disabilities at the UN headquarters in New York July
30, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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Susan Rice, permanent representative of the United
Sates, accompanied by Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett, signed the
international treaty on behalf of the Obama Administration at the UN
Headquarters in New York.
A handful of representatives from the disabled
advocacy community sitting in wheelchairs witnessed Rice sign the treaty in a
small room on the 38th floor of the UN Secretariat building.
In signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, the U.S. joined 141 countries in supporting international
efforts to prohibit discrimination against the estimated 650 million people
around the world with disabilities.
After inking the treaty, Rice said: "Our work is not
completed until we have an enduring guarantee of inherent dignity, growth and
independence of all persons with disabilities worldwide."
"So let the signing treaty today
be an ongoing source of inspiration for us all in our shared struggle to bring
all barriers down," she said.
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Permanent representative of the United
States to the United Nations Susan Rice (1st R) hugs President of the U.S.
International Council on Disabilities Marca Bristo at the UN headquarters
in New York July 30, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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"As (U.S.) President (Barack) Obama has noted, people
with disabilities, far too often, lack the choice to live in communities of
their own choosing," Rice said.
"Their unemployment rate is much higher than those
without disabilities," she said. "They are much more likely to live in poverty."
"Health care is out of reach for far too many," she
said. "And too many children with disabilities are denied a world class
education around the world."
"Discrimination against people with disabilities is
not just unjust, it hinders economic development, limits democracy and ruins
society," she said. "These challenges will not disappear with a stroke of a
pen."
For her part, Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor and
assistant to the U.S. president for intergovernmental affairs and public
liaison, said at the signing ceremony that "the United States of America proudly
joins the 141 other nations in signing this extraordinary convention -- the
first new human rights convention of the 21st century."
She called the signing an "historic step" for
advancing a global commitment to the fundamental human rights for all persons
with disabilities.
"Last week, the president took a bold step forward
for our country and announced that the U.S. would sign the UN Convention on the
rights of persons with disabilities," she said. "Now, we've fulfilled this
commitment."
Today, 650 million people -- 10 percent of the
world's population -- live with a disability, she said. "In developing
countries, 90 percent of the children with disabilities do not attend school and
women and girls with disabilities are too often the subject of deep
discrimination."
The signing fulfilled a promise made by then Senator
Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. The Bush Administration had
chosen not to sign it, although it did participate in the negotiating process.
The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly
in December 2006 along with its Optional Protocol with an aim to protect the
rights of at least 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, of whom
approximately 80 percent live in less-developed countries.
By ratifying the convention, states commit themselves
to enacting laws and other measures to improve disability rights and also
abolish legislation, customs and practices that discriminate against persons
with disabilities.
The U.S. Senate must now review and vote on the
treaty, which needs two-thirds majority to be ratified -- a lengthy legal
process.
David Morrissey is the executive director of the
United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD), a U.S. advocacy
group whose board members helped draft the treaty.
He said he is pleased with the Obama administration's
policy change, adding that the Convention provides a new language for the
international community to understand the experience of people with disabilities
through a prism of human rights.
"We must now begin to study the treaty and look at
all of the existing policies ... to make the treaty real in our lives," he told
Xinhua in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Countries that sign the treaty must set up
independent monitoring mechanisms to ensure the Convention is implemented. They
must also collect data and research on people with disabilities in an effort to
prohibit discrimination based on disability in employment, education, housing,
and medical care.
