SubscribeIn spite of the demonstrably false claims that the CRPD has anything to do with abortion, failure to ratify it certainly has a direct impact on justifying infanticide.
Failure to ratify would impact this country in multiple ways. If ratified, the treaty extends U.S. protections to Americans traveling abroad and working abroad.
Without ratification, Americans won't have those protections. Also, the United States will lose an international voice on disability matters. If the United States does not ratify the treaty, the United States can't appoint anyone to sit on the U.N. Committee on Disabilities. According to Marca Bristo, Board Chair for the United States International Council on Disability, this means "our best practices and many years of experience can't be implemented."
As a person with dwarfism who sits on the board for Little People of America, losing that voice would have a devastating impact. I recently read an article from a magazine published by Little People Uganda, which serves people with dwarfism in Uganda. The article was written by a young man with dwarfism who had recently celebrated the birth of his daughter. The baby's mother was an average stature woman. In the article, the young man wrote that his newborn child was murdered just days after birth by her maternal grandmother. In the article, the father wrote that his baby was strangled to death "just because her father was a dwarf and probably she was a dwarf."
Sadly, as a member of a non-profit volunteer board, I can do little more than express outrage over, mourn over, and write about such a tragic story. That's one reason why the United States needs to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The treaty will give me a platform upon which I can speak out and advocate on behalf of people with dwarfism in other countries. More importantly, ratification gives the United States a voice to shape disability policy worldwide, and tool to protect and make concrete change on behalf of people with disabilities worldwide.
The full story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-arnold/time-is-now-for-us-to-sup_b_2228964.html
