Coming To Lame Duck Tomorrow: Controversial UN Disabilities Treaty

Even though Congress is running out of time to push through a negotiated solution to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, the Senate has a UN treaty on the schedule for a ratification vote Tuesday.

And opponents say it could leave society’s most vulnerable under the thumb of an international agreement that’s not as innocuous as it sounds.

“You’d think this issue can transcend politics. The Disabilities Convention is a non-discrimination treaty that will extend essential protections for millions of disabled Americans when they leave our shores,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote in the Huffington Post today. “…Approving the treaty now won’t require any changes whatsoever to American law — none, zero, zip. It simply requires other countries to improve their own record on disability rights — in effect taking our gold standard here at home and exporting it to countries that have never heard of disability rights or have never changed their laws to accommodate people with disabilities.”

President Obama signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, sending it to the Senate for ratification where it has remained since. Currently 125 countries plus the European Union are parties to the convention.

“The UNCRPD should be of great concern for conservatives,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told PJM today. ”From American sovereignty, to parental rights, to the lives of the unborn, it could lead to limiting our individual freedoms and expanding the role of government in our lives.”

 Read More at pjmedia.com . By Bridget Johnson.