Women Enabled International Letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Regarding the Ratification of the CRPD

By Women Enabled International
18 July 2012

For entry into the record of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee consideration of the U.S. Senate Ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

To Honorable Senators Kerry and Lugar and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

As President and Founder of Women Enabled, a non-governmental organization dedicated to advancing the rights of persons with disabilities and women, with a special focus on women and girls with disabilities, I vigorously urge prompt U.S. Senate ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This treaty will advance the rights of all persons with disabilities around the world and includes specific provisions to advance the rights of women and girls with disabilities. I strongly encourage the U.S. to ratify the CRPD without any Reservations, Understandings and Declarations (RUDs) beyond the well-crafted RUDs proposed by the Obama Administration and to do so before July 26, 2012, the anniversary of the U.S. landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Such prompt ratification would further advance the spirit of cooperation and collaboration that so well characterized the passage of the ADA itself.