Those who oppose the bill, writes Baldez, believe it would violate U.S. sovereignty. Baldez, an associate professor of government and of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, disagrees. “By failing to ratify the convention on disabilities we do not protect American sovereignty. Instead, we compromise America’s ability to assert global leadership on disability rights and we leave the U.S. in bad company,” she writes.
Baldez continues, “By establishing clear standards for rights and requiring regular reports on progress toward compliance, treaties like the one on disabilities empower ordinary citizens to demand that their governments comply with these obligations. Public pressure at the domestic level is what makes international human rights treaties effective.”
Read the full story, published 12/14/12 by The Christian Science Monitor.