Just one day after the International Day of Persons with Disabilities the United States Senate rejected the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) with sixty-one Senators voting in favor approximately six votes short of the two-thirds majority required to adopt a treaty.

What is the CRPD?

UN Convention of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) is a treaty designed to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities as well as promote universal recognition and respect for their inherent dignity.  The CPRD serves as a progressive human rights and policy instrument across all disabilities and marks a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities while not specifically defining “disability.”  The Convention builds upon and works in synergy with previous international texts related to persons with disabilities, and other countries’ civil and disability rights laws including those of the United States.  The treaty had already been approved by the European Union and 125 countries, including China and Russia.

To learn more about the CPRD at http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?navid=15&pid=162 and why the US should ratify it http://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/crpd-faq.

See how your Senator voted!  If this issue is important to you, you may wish to contact your Senator with your opinion.