Guest guest Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 From Cheryl in CA Subject: HELP GET THE U.S. TO BACK DISABILITY RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE ACTION ALERT!! Help Get U.S. to Support U.N. Convention From Dolan of the World Committee on Disability HELP GET THE U.S. TO BACK DISABILITY RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AROUND THE WORLD Thank you for your continued leadership on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. We are stepping up the campaign to get House Majority Leader Tom Delay to schedule for a floor vote House Concurrent Resolution 169 (attached for information) which calls for the US to support of the Convention and to send a delegation of people with disabilities to represent the US at the next UN Convention Ad Hoc Committee meeting from May 24 - June 4, 2004. Also attached is an action alert that I ask you to circulate to your constituency. It is important that we flood the phone lines to certain congressional offices this month as we want to change the Administration's position in time for the next Ad Hoc Committee meetings. An identical bill has been introduced in the Senate, however, it has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and no action has been taken on it. We need to get letters from disability organizations to Senators Lugar and Biden - Chairman, and ranking Democrat respectively on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - asking them to take up Senate Concurrent Resolution 52 in the Foreign Relations Committee as soon as possible, and to sign on as sponsors of the legislation. A sample letter is attached. Summary of actions requested: 1. Circulate the action alert to your constituencies and encourage them to phone Rep. Delay this month. 2. If your organization has not already sent a letter to Rep. Delay, please do so now. A sample letter is attached to the Grassroots Action Alert. 3. If your organization has sent a letter to Rep. Delay please call and ask for a response. We need leadership and grassroots to call in. 4. Please send a letter from your organization to Senators Lugar and Biden as soon as possible. A sample letter is attached to this memo. =========================== SAMPLE LETTER TO SENATORS LUGAR AND BIDEN INSERT DATE FAX # Senator Lugar Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 FAX # Senator ph Biden Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 Dear Senator: I write to request that you take up for consideration in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee S Con Res 52 expressing the Sense of Congress that the U.S. should support a U.N. convention on disability rights, and calling for the U.S. to send a delegation of people with disabilities to the Convention Ad Hoc Committee. I also ask for you to join on as a co-sponsor of this bill. There is some urgency with this bill. The next meeting of the UN Ad Hoc Committee starts on May 24th. It is critical that we send the appropriate delegation to those meetings, and that the position of the U.S. turn to one of active support. The United States is a leader on disability around the world. We must continue to show our leadership through U.S. support and involvement in the proposed U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, so that the rights of people with disabilities throughout the world will be enforced and protected. Sincerely, ================================ GRASSROOTS ACTION ALERT DISABILITY ADVOCATES - URGENT ACTION NEEDED HELP GET THE U.S. TO BACK INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AROUND THE WORLD To: Disability Advocates Date: April 13, 2004 House Concurrent Resolution 169 Pressure must be put on House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R- TX) to schedule and support House Concurrent Resolution 169, calling for U.S. support of a United Nations human rights convention (legally binding international treaty) on the rights of people with disabilities. The bill is co- sponsored by the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), and the ranking Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), and has the unanimous support of the House International Relations Committee. The legislation: (1) calls for the United States to play a leading role in the drafting of a United Nations convention and to work toward its adoption. The Convention should affirm the human rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, and should be, among other things, consistent with the spirit of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, the United States Constitution, and other rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens with disabilities; and (2) urges the President to instruct the Secretary of State to send to the UN Ad Hoc Committee meetings a U.S. delegation that includes individuals with disabilities who are recognized leaders in the U.S. disability rights movement. (So far, no one with a disability has represented the U.S. in meetings on the Convention!!) Status of the International Convention on Disability within the Administration For over two years, member nations of the U.N. have been working to draft a convention. The U.N. human rights system has traditionally not considered disability as within its scope, so this represents an important turning point for people with disabilities worldwide. The U.S. government has taken a backseat in this process, stating that it will not sign such a treaty because it has a comprehensive domestic law. This undermines the U.S. as a leader on disability internationally and also the importance of the convention itself. ACTIONS NEEDED House Majority Leader Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX) is in charge of scheduling all bills. We are asking disability advocates around the country to call the office of Rep. Delay throughout this month of April and ask him to immediately schedule House Concurrent Resolution 169 and to support it. If we don't pressure Rep. Delay to schedule this bill, we have little chance that the U.S. will support this convention, which seeks to preserve and enforce disability rights around the world. We are in particular need of people from Texas to contact Rep. Delay, but we need everyone to contact him. Here is what we ask you to do: 1. Call Rep. Delay at his Majority Leader Office at 202- 225-4000. 2. Introduce yourself and tell the person who answers the phone that you are calling to ask Congressman Delay to schedule immediately for a vote on the House floor House Concurrent Resolution 169 having to do with the UN Convention on Disability. Also, ask for Rep. Delay's support of the bill. 3. Remind them that the bill was voted out of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee with unanimous support. 4. Tell them you will call again in a week to find out when the bill is scheduled for a vote and you expect to receive a date certain then. ONGOING EFFORTS An identical bill is beginning to make headway in the Senate. It is being sponsored by Senator Harkin and has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We will let you know when the time is right for similar grassroots action on the Senate legislation. An international convention has the potential to provide legally binding standards on disability rights for all UN member nations that sign and ratify it. For millions of people with disabilities worldwide who have no domestic protections at all to protect and promote their rights, this is the most important international development in history. Americans with disabilities will also benefit greatly from this convention as it will, among other things, raise the profile of disability as a subject of human rights. Disability must no longer be marginalized in the human rights framework but dealt with on the same level and with the same commitment as other human rights issues. For more information on the proposed convention visit: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ ================================= SAMPLE LETTER TO HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER FAX NUMBER INSERT DATE The Honorable Tom Delay House Majority Leader H 107, The Capitol Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman Delay: I write to ask you to schedule for a vote on the House floor as soon as possible House Concurrent Resolution 169 expressing the Sense of Congress that the U.S. should support a U.N. convention on disability rights, and calling for the U.S. to send a delegation of people with disabilities to the Convention Ad Hoc Committee. I also ask for your support of this bill, which has bipartisan support from the House International Relations Committee. There is some urgency with this bill. The next meeting of the UN Ad Hoc Committee starts on May 24th. It is critical that we send the appropriate delegation to those meetings, and that the position of the U.S. turn to one of active support. The United States is a leader on disability around the world. We must continue to show our leadership through U.S. support and involvement in the proposed U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, so that the rights of people with disabilities throughout the world will be enforced and protected. Sincerely, ___________________________________________________________________Send email with emotion.Try PowerPlugs: Emoticons for free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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