[games_access] US Kills UN CRPD.... :( (Steve Spohn)

[Ian Hamilton]

The entire thing was a pretty poor show from both sides. The supporters based their case on patriotic flag waving, making shameful false claims about the US leading the way, already being compliant, and that ratification was about getting other countries to implement US laws.. making easy pickings for the opposition, who were able to use the holes in the case for together with things like home schooling as a smokescreen for the real reason for opposition. 
Have a watch of the Santorum and co. press conference, they stated very clearly that things like home schooling are just minor details, and even if those widely publicised objections were amended they still would do everything they could to block ratification, the reason (stated several times) being that they don't want ANY Americans to have any kind of social or economic rights, as that's "a march towards Soviet block socialism".
Fair point. Despite what the supporters (inc. DOJ) claimed, ratification would indeed require changes to the law, replacing the ADA (now outdated compared to UNCRPD based legislation, like the UK's recent Equalities Act) with something that included social and economic rights (UNCRPD states rights to equal access to employment opportunities, recreation, leisure and inclusion in society). 
So yes, fair point by the opposition.. that is, so long as you think that discrimination against people with disabilities in these areas is fine, and all that matters is the current access to basic public/government services.
As for it being a US led initiative to implement US laws overseas, here's the reality:
http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/maps/enablemap.jpg
It's not the last time that the UNCRPD will be raised in the US. Considering it is meant to be a non-partisan issue hopefully next time it'll be able to get through thanks to both sides debating it based on fact rather than ideology, and hopefully next time it won't be raised during a lame duck session too, that hardly helped.
Hopefully a situation like the UN convention on the rights of the child can be avoided. Here's the global state of ratification for that:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child.svg
Only three countries in the world haven't ratified. South Sudan because the country has only just been created. Somalia as they haven't had a proper government in place for long enough to implement, but there's wide public support and they are moving towards ratification. 
And then the USA, because the convention mentions social and economic rights, staunchly opposed by conservative senators, which they argued against using home schooling choice as a cover. Sound familiar? 

Ian
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2012 23:09:02 -0500
> From: Michelle Hinn <michellehinn at gmail.com>
> Subject: [games_access] US Kills UN CRPD.... :(
> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<CA+bf7W7XjMdYYZ0b6TfQZp1TLPL_fQOcN0AswTRPChbZB1+SyA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Well if you haven't heard this by now, here's what happened with CRPD
> as far as US involvement...
> 
> http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/12/04/15675104-senate-gop-kills-disabilities-treaty
> 
> Sigh...
> 
> Michelle
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 00:25:41 -0500
> From: Steve Spohn <steve at ablegamers.com>
> Subject: Re: [games_access] US Kills UN CRPD.... :(
> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<CABrM+MXw091-ugy+_i-fJfWLWB2tTLTX1a21TO0Hp-dAsA85sg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Thanks, Republicans!      jerks
> 

 		 	   		  
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