AFR News: Urgent: Call Right Now to Reject UN Disabilities Treaty

July 28, 2014

Urgent: Call Right Now to Reject UN Disabilities Treaty

Dear Champion of Parental Rights,

We have received intelligence that this week, supporters of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will be lobbying in force for Senate ratification of this dangerous United Nations treaty. They are busing in activists, making phone calls, and pulling out all of the stops.

We must match their efforts. Please call your two U.S. Senators right now and politely but firmly urge them to defeat the CRPD. Then, make a point to call again on Tuesday afternoon; we understand treaty supporters have scheduled a rally for that time, and we need to meet strength with strength. You can reach your senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for them. You can also find their contact information by clicking on your state at Parentalrights.org/states.

Your message can be as simple as the following:

“I urge you to oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This treaty surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats and will threaten parental care of children with disabilities. Our nation already has laws to protect Americans with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families by giving bureaucrats, instead of parents, the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child with disabilities.”

I know you are busy parenting your children. I know many of you have already called and you may feel your senator is not listening to you. But I also know that your dedication to US sovereignty, educational freedom, and parental rights made the difference in 2012 when the Senate rejected the CRPD. Please take the time to make these calls again. I know that if we are united in making our voices overwhelmingly heard, we can win again.

Senate staffers may argue that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee added Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations (“RUDs”) to the CRPD to answer our concerns with the treaty. RUDs are considered to be weaker than treaty language under international law, as my recent analysis shows. Do we dare to trust our God-given right to direct the education and upbringing of our children to these RUDs?

Other staffers may argue that the treaty is only a statement of support for people with disabilities, and will not change US law. Remind these staffers that Article VI of the US Constitution says treaties that are ratified with the consent of the Senate “shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” The US already is the world leader in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities – we don’t need to ratify a UN treaty to remain the leader.

Thank you for calling. Please forward this email to your friends and urge them to call as well. At this point, the CRPD has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote, which means that supporters of the treaty still do not have the two-thirds majority they need to pass it. Your phone calls and letters are making the difference.

To learn more about the CRPD and to read it for yourself, please visit www.parentalrights.org/crpd.

For liberty,