The CRPD is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Every time a country ratifies this convention, they agree to:
- Improve laws and make laws that protect the human rights of the disabled
- Enforce laws
- Protect people with disabilities
- Educate the public about human rights
- Involve people with disabilities in decisions
- Tell the United Nations what they are doing for people with disabilities
All people with disabilities have the right to make their own decisions about their lives. We all have human rights and everyone deserves to have them protected. So I kinda wonder why my country hasn’t ratified this convention yet.
Please tell me what you think.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: "human rights" "Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities" "Special Olympics" |
25 Days to Make a Difference 
Doing what is right and doing what is easy are never the same thing. While I don’t know an answer to your question, I do know that the solution lies in voices. The more that people who can speak for those who cannot, the greater the power and impetus for change.
My answer here sounds a bit cliched, but it is sincere. I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but before Lily was born, we spent about 5 months believing that she had Down’s Syndrome because of a test that had been done at the hospital when Liz was pregnant. Initially, we were upset, but the more we thought about it, our feelings were about how other people might treat her and that scared us. We knew that we would love her and do everything we could to make her happy, whatever her capabilities–and it only took us moments to realize that no matter what, she was a gift.
It is the responsibility and duty of every person on this planet to believe the same thing about everybody else. Regardless of abilities, everybody is a gift, everybody has something to offer the world, and I hope that one day our country will make the statement to the world that they believe the same thing by ratifying this convention.
Good for you, Laura, for giving it a voice.
-Mike
Hi,
Because we have the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), one of the most protective laws in the world for anti-discrimination. it affords students and people in the workplace some pretty amazing accommodations.
Signing CRPD would require us to hit certain standards and we care too much about our citizens to shoot for “just hitting a standard.” We want people with disabilities to thrive. Not just meet an international standard.
Hi Marcus
Thanks for commenting!
I do agree with you because I think that if you sign something, it shouldn’t be about just standards, it should be about people. But I want to know if we could do both or why we can do one but not the other.
Thanks!
Laura
I really enjoyed reading this blogpost, keep on writing such interesting posts.