Power Grid Blog
Former Attorney General & Governor of Pennsylvania, Dick Thornburgh's Testimony From Today's CRPD Hearing.
July 12, 2012 | Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
Oral Testimony of Dick Thornburgh
Former Attorney General of the United States and
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
Counsel, K&L Gates LLP
Respecting the Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Before the Foreign Relations Committee of
the United States Senate
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Room G-50
Thursday, July 12, 2012
9:00 a.m.
Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Lugar, Members of the Committee:
It is a distinct pleasure for to me to testify in favor of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention or CRPD) as an important component of the worldwide effort to advance disability rights. Ratification by this body would mark a major step forward in the effort to end discrimination and to promote the rights of as many as one billion men, women and children with disabilities around the world who seek vindication of their pre-eminent human rights in an ever-challenging world.
To date, as I last looked, a total of 153 countries (including the United States) have signed the Convention and 116 have ratified its terms. We literally stand today at the very cusp of a new era of worldwide recognition of disability rights. A major leap forward in this effort would be accomplished by timely U.S. Senate ratification of the Convention.
It is obvious that the world community has taken an important – and long overdue –step toward bringing people with disabilities all over the world into the mainstream of the human rights movement by adopting this Convention. I must applaud the disability community for its tireless efforts in what must have seemed at times to be an uphill battle for international recognition of this important principle.
The Convention represents important principles that as Americans we hold dear – basic recognition and equal protection of every person under the law, non-discrimination, the fundamental importance of independent living, and the right to make basic choices about our lives. We pioneered these basic principles under American law through passage of the ADA in 1990. We in the United States are demonstrating that people with disabilities can participate fully in our democracy. We are demonstrating that society, as a whole, is richer and better off when people with disabilities are included fully in every aspect of life. It is my hope and expectation that the United States will assume an equally important leadership role in helping to promote these basic principles worldwide by the ratification of this Convention.
Over 20 years ago, while serving as U.S. Attorney General, I testified before House and Senate Committees of the U.S. Congress in support of the ADA. During those hearings I acknowledged that no piece of legislation could alone change the long-standing misperceptions that many people have about disability – misperceptions based largely on stereotype, ignorance and fear of what is different. Any reshaping of attitudes would have to be the gradual result not of the words or ideas in the laws, but of bringing people with disabilities from the margins of society into the mainstream of American life – in our schools and workplaces, on busses and trains, and in our courthouses, restaurants, theaters and congregations – where they not only have an absolute right to be but where we have an obligation as fellow human beings to welcome them as equals.
I the years following 1990, we’ve made remarkable progress that is not only celebrated here at home but also recognized abroad. Because of our adoption of the ADA and other disability rights legislation, the United States is viewed internationally as a pioneering role model for disability rights.
Despite progress already made, disability as a global issue remains near the bottom of the list of priorities in many governments and societies. People with disabilities remain among the poorest, least educated and most abused and excluded people on earth. We must recognize that the challenges we face are intimately linked with the very circumstances of economic, social, and political marginalization that affect people with disabilities around the world. It is important to note that ratification of the Convention will require no new domestic legislation and will impose no new costs upon U.S. taxpayers. As does our own ADA, the Convention simply ensures non-discrimination on the basis of disability, guaranteeing that persons with disabilities enjoy the same rights as other persons.
Some have said that, because of America’s comprehensive domestic protections, a treaty on disability would have no relevance in our own country. But, let’s hold on a minute. We are indeed at this time the most progressive country in the world when it comes to the domestic protection of disability rights. The universality of rights and fundamental freedoms – as expressed in our Declaration of Independence – is the foundation on which our entire society is based. Respect for human rights is also a stated principle of our foreign policy - precisely because we recognize that stability, security and economic opportunity in any society presuppose a social order based on respect for the rights of its citizens. Given this history and these values, it would seem natural for the United States to assume a leading role – not a passive one - in the effort to recognize and enforce an international treaty of this kind.
Misgivings expressed by critics of the Convention have already been addressed in reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs) contained in the package submitted by the administration. By addressing federalism, providing a zone of private action protected by the Constitution and declaring the Convention to be non-self executing, these RUDs protect U.S. sovereignty and recognize the Convention as a non-discrimination instrument, similar to our own ADA.
Ratification of the Disability Rights Convention is an opportunity to export to the world the very best we have to offer. This is a chance to use our rich national experience in disability rights – which has gained us the respect of the world community - to extend the principles embodied in the ADA to the hundreds of millions of people with disabilities worldwide who today have no domestic protection. This is worthy of our leadership. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by playing the role the world expects of us. We must ratify the Convention so that we can fulfill that role.
You can watch the previously filmed live testimony, here.
