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UNITED NATIONS — Amid applause and a smattering of hoots, the US ambassador to the United Nations on July 30 signed a landmark UN convention promoting and protecting the rights of the world's 650 million disabled people. Present at the signing ceremony at UN headquarters were President Barack Obama's senior aide Valerie Jarrett; William Kennedy Smith, a US advocate for the rights of the disabled; and representatives of American disabled groups.
Rice noted that the United States was joining 141 countries in signing what is the first major human rights treaty of the 21st century.
Signatory countries are expected to enact laws and other measures to improve disability rights and to abolish legislation and practices that discriminate against the disabled.
The UN convention, which was adopted in 2006, "urges equal protection and equal benefits under the law for all citizens," the US ambassador said. "It rejects discrimination in all its forms and calls for full participation and inclusion in society of all persons with disabilities."
Thursday's signing "represents a profound shift and an engagement not only in disability rights, but with the international community in general that has happened since the change in (US) administration," Smith said.
Rice highlighted the significance of the treaty by pointing to the glaring inequalities the disabled face in obtaining healthcare, education and work.
According to a June 2009 poll by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, unemployment among disabled people in the United States stands at 14.3 percent, compared with 9.5 percent for persons with no disability.
Obama will soon bring the treaty before the US Senate for ratification, she added.
Jarrett, meanwhile, took the opportunity to announce the creation of a new senior-level disabilities human rights position in the State Department.
"This individual will be charged with developing a comprehensive strategy to promote the rights of persons with disabilities internationally," she added.
"Discrimination against people with disabilities is not simply unjust, it hinders economic development, limits democracy and erodes society," Rice added.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From AFP:
