Tom Harkin: “I come before the Senate to call again for the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons…”

“I come before the Senate to call again for the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I would like to give a little history. We passed the Americans with Disabilities Act here in 1990. It was signed into law by President George Herbert Walker Bush on July 26, 1990--24 years ago last Saturday. That changed the face of America. Anywhere you go, you can see ramps and curb cuts and automatic door openers and accessible bathrooms and in education kids being integrated fully into schools under the IDEA and ADA. It really did change accessibility and also opportunity in the workplace, for example, for people with disabilities. Some years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, the United Nations set up a committee to study whether there should be a treaty, an international convention on the rights of people with disabilities. That committee drafted it after consultation with us here in the Senate. In looking at the ADA, in fact--I was told by one of the persons instrumental in this that the Americans with Disabilities Act, which we refer to as ADA, informed them on what they needed to put into the convention. That convention was sent out to member states for ratification in 2008. Since that time, 148 nations have ratified it, with one exception--well, there has been more than one exception, but one glaring exception is the United States.…”