Who is afraid of the Big Bad U.N.?
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND NGO Representative for the U.N. Working Group for Women, Peace, and Security, and WAND Ed Fund Board member/Treasurer
Published: December 25, 2012 by the Cambridge Chronicle & Tab
Why else would the Senate vote against a treaty based on our own Americans With Disabilities Act signed by President Bush in 1990? A treaty solidly supported by veterans groups and child advocates, negotiated by George W. Bush and defended on the Senate floor by Bob Dole in his wheelchair? It is absurd that the Senate did not pass legislation protecting the rights of wounded soldiers and veterans.
We have to ask why these senators risked their careers by taking such an unpopular stand. All editorials ascribe the reason to be the hold of some people’s overriding opposition to the U.N. for its potential attack on U.S. sovereignty. To those who align with this stance; signing any international treaty means "loss of our freedom." And, unfortunately, a large sector of the U.S. population also believes that the major goal of the U.N. is a takeover of America. But why do our senators accept a myth that has no basis in fact? Aren’t elected officials supposed to educate the public instead of misleading it?
If we dig deeper, more specific reasons appear in their statements -- the rights of parents to choose treatments for a disabled child or to home-school that child were some of the objections raised. Changes in our healthcare system inevitably "leading to socialism" were also cited. And, of course, sinister changes in our reproductive practices were raised. Not that the treaty would have any power to legislate these things. Baffling to me was the Heritage Foundation’s charge that profits of U.S. corporations might be threatened. Corporate welfare is always good fodder for a policy debate on protecting human rights.
Last week we celebrated International Human Rights Day. This treaty represents a major advance for human rights. A long-sought goal for the United Nations is the general acceptance that all people have a right to respect, protection, education and adequate healthcare. The U.S. was the leader in establishing the very idea of human rights. We must not let our country step back from its beliefs in such a cowardly way.
One hundred and twenty-five countries have ratified this treaty, including Russia and China. Some are asking why we should join with countries that have such poor human rights records. My answer would be that is exactly why we should join -- to convince others of our own good record on disabilities.
And, besides, we are not exempt from questions about our own human rights policies -- the use of drones, our inability to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and our growing and unchecked Pentagon budget that allocates funds to war and defense contractors instead of vital programs that address healthcare, hunger, child abuse and education, for example.
Steve Rothstein, president of the Perkins School for the Blind, said that he could not sleep if he were one of the senators voting no. When he explained that 4.5 million children in the world cannot go to school because they are blind, I could only think of our neighbor’s child who is a student at Perkins and has made great progress there.
It is time to join the rest of the world and work for the goals that represent our better selves.
I and my fellow advocates at Women’s Action for New Directions will be watching and hoping for another vote in the next Congress. Next time, let’s get it right.
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