UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Thursday signed a U.N. treaty enshrining the rights of the world's 650 million disabled people, saying it symbolized President Barack Obama's commitment to upholding human rights through international agreements.
The signing by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice marked a dramatic shift from the Bush administration, which refused to take part in negotiations on the treaty, arguing that it would dilute protections for U.S. citizens under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Obama marked last week's 19th anniversary of the U.S. law barring discrimination against the disabled with the announcement that the U.S. would become the 141st signatory to the convention. "Disability rights aren't just civil rights to be enforced here at home. They are universal rights to be recognized and promoted around the world," the president said.
Rice said Obama will soon submit the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification. Once it is ratified, the United States will be bound by its provisions.
"It symbolizes that the United States is recommitting itself to upholding human rights through multilateral institutions," Rice said. "It is symbolic of the president's determination to adhere universally to those principles that he has championed and that the United States stands for domestically."
The treaty is the first new human rights convention of the 21st century. It was approved by the U.N. General Assembly in December 2006 and came into force in May 2008 after 20 countries ratified it.
The 32-page convention is a blueprint aimed at ending discrimination and exclusion of the physically and mentally impaired in education, jobs, and everyday life. It requires countries to guarantee freedom from exploitation and abuse for the disabled, while protecting rights they already have — such as ensuring voting rights for the blind and providing wheelchair-accessible buildings.
It says disabled persons must also enjoy the same right to life, to inherit, to control their financial affairs, and to privacy as the able-bodied. It also advocates keeping the disabled in their communities rather than removing them and educating them separately as many countries do.
According to the U.N., about 10 percent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with a disability and the number is increasing with population growth. The disabled constitute the world's largest minority, and 80 percent live in developing countries, many in poverty.
"We all still have a great deal more to do at home and abroad," Rice said. "As president Obama has noted, people with disabilities far too often lack the choice to live in communities of their own choosing; their unemployment rate is much higher than those without disabilities; they are much more likely to live in poverty; health care is out of reach for far too many; and too many children with disabilities are denied a world class education."
White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, who also attended the signing ceremony, announced the creation of a new senior-level post in the State Department to promote the rights of people with disabilities internationally and coordinate government efforts to ratify the treaty.
Several U.S. campaigners for the disabled — two in wheelchairs — attended the signing ceremony in a conference room on the 38th floor of U.N. headquarters and applauded loudly after Rice wrote her name in the treaty book.
Marca Bristo, president and CEO of Access Living, who chairs the U.S. International Council on Disabilities, said the council would be coordinating civil society efforts to ratify the treaty.
William Kennedy Smith, president and founder of the Center for International Rehabilitation, who helped organize activists from around the world to work on drafting the convention, recalled how disappointed U.S. campaigners for the disabled were that the Bush administration refused to participate.
"With the signing today, the U.S. rejoins the arena where they have traditionally set the benchmark in disability rights internationally and I think it's a huge step for people with disabilities and a huge step for our country," he said.
"I think that it represents a profound difference in how the two administrations view international cooperation, international engagement," Smith said.
-The Associated Press
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Disabled grandmother shoved, locked out of her house
A disabled 68-year-old woman was shoved to the ground by her grandson, who later came back, confronted her, physically removed her from her home and locked her out, Bossier City police say.
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Martin Dewayne Brown, 32, of the 1200 block of Estelle Street in Bossier City, is charged with one count each of cruelty to the infirm and simple battery. He is being held in Bossier Minimum Security Facility, where his bond has been set at $25,500.
Brown is accused of shoving his grandmother, who uses a walker due to a physical disability, when she tried to intervene during a fight between him and his adult brother at her home, where Brown’s brother lives, according to Mark Natale, a Bossier City spokesman. She called police; her grandsons fled before they arrived, Natale said.
Bossier City Fire Department personnel treated the woman on the scene.
Brown returned after police left, Natale said. The woman again called authorities after being removed from her house and locked out. Brown was arrested at the residence.
-shreveporttimes.com
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Martin Dewayne Brown, 32, of the 1200 block of Estelle Street in Bossier City, is charged with one count each of cruelty to the infirm and simple battery. He is being held in Bossier Minimum Security Facility, where his bond has been set at $25,500.
Brown is accused of shoving his grandmother, who uses a walker due to a physical disability, when she tried to intervene during a fight between him and his adult brother at her home, where Brown’s brother lives, according to Mark Natale, a Bossier City spokesman. She called police; her grandsons fled before they arrived, Natale said.
Bossier City Fire Department personnel treated the woman on the scene.
Brown returned after police left, Natale said. The woman again called authorities after being removed from her house and locked out. Brown was arrested at the residence.
-shreveporttimes.com
Disabled man may have case against NJ restaurant
TRENTON, N.J. - An Essex County restaurant that refused to seat a disabled man and his guide dog in its main dining room may have violated New Jersey's law against discrimination.
The Division on Civil Rights has made a probable cause finding against 88 Cafe in Livingston and its owner, Johnny Wong. That means there is evidence of a civil rights violation, though the case is ongoing.
Clifford Aaron sought to be seated in the main restaurant with his wife, daughter and golden retriever, Alto, a certified guide dog. The Civil Rights Division says Wong instead offered the family a table near the kitchen, fearing other patrons would object to the presence of the dog.
A woman who answered the phone at 88 Cafe says Wong is off and no one else was available to comment.
-The Associated Press
The Division on Civil Rights has made a probable cause finding against 88 Cafe in Livingston and its owner, Johnny Wong. That means there is evidence of a civil rights violation, though the case is ongoing.
Clifford Aaron sought to be seated in the main restaurant with his wife, daughter and golden retriever, Alto, a certified guide dog. The Civil Rights Division says Wong instead offered the family a table near the kitchen, fearing other patrons would object to the presence of the dog.
A woman who answered the phone at 88 Cafe says Wong is off and no one else was available to comment.
-The Associated Press
Alaska police: Taser use on disabled man justified
MOBILE, Ala. — Officers who used pepper spray and a Taser to remove a man from a store bathroom found out only later he was deaf and mentally disabled and didn't understand they wanted him to open the door, police said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Mobile Police Department said the officers' actions were justified because the man was armed with a potential weapon — an umbrella.
But relatives of Antonio Love, 37, have asked for a formal investigation and said they plan to sue both the police and the store.
"I want justice," Love's mother, Phyllis Love, said Tuesday.
The woman said her son hears only faintly, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and didn't realize that it was the police who were trying enter the bathroom.
"He thought the devil was out there trying to get in to get him," she said.
Antonio Love, in a written statement and in a television interview given in sign language about the confrontation, said he had a badly upset stomach last Friday and went into a Dollar General store to use the restroom.
Police spokesman Christopher Levy said Tuesday store workers called officers complaining that a man had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. Officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, but the person didn't respond.
Officers used a tire iron to open the door, but the man pushed back to keep it shut. Officers saw the umbrella and sprayed pepper spray through a crack trying to subdue the man, Levy said. They shot the man with a Taser when they finally got inside, he said.
Officers didn't realize Love was deaf or had mental problems until he showed them a card he carries in his wallet, Levy said. He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, but officers released him and took him home after a magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
Levy said officers were justified in using force against Love since he had an umbrella.
"The officers really worked within the limits of our level-of-force policy," he said. "We had no information about who this guy was."
Phyllis Love said her son, who has worked in the garden department at a Lowe's store for several years, was scared when he realized someone was trying to get into the bathroom with him. He put water on his face and on the floor after being hit with pepper spray, she said.
"He didn't know it was a policeman until they busted the door in on him," she said. "He had a knot on his head from where it hit him."
Levy said police wish the confrontation had never occurred. The internal investigation will include a review of Love's complaints that officers laughed at him after realizing he was deaf, he said.
"We'll make whatever efforts we can to resolve this situation, hopefully so this man will be able to trust police in the future so we can help him. Obviously, it's going to be a rough road," he said.
The Associated Press.
A spokesman for the Mobile Police Department said the officers' actions were justified because the man was armed with a potential weapon — an umbrella.
But relatives of Antonio Love, 37, have asked for a formal investigation and said they plan to sue both the police and the store.
"I want justice," Love's mother, Phyllis Love, said Tuesday.
The woman said her son hears only faintly, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and didn't realize that it was the police who were trying enter the bathroom.
"He thought the devil was out there trying to get in to get him," she said.
Antonio Love, in a written statement and in a television interview given in sign language about the confrontation, said he had a badly upset stomach last Friday and went into a Dollar General store to use the restroom.
Police spokesman Christopher Levy said Tuesday store workers called officers complaining that a man had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. Officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, but the person didn't respond.
Officers used a tire iron to open the door, but the man pushed back to keep it shut. Officers saw the umbrella and sprayed pepper spray through a crack trying to subdue the man, Levy said. They shot the man with a Taser when they finally got inside, he said.
Officers didn't realize Love was deaf or had mental problems until he showed them a card he carries in his wallet, Levy said. He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, but officers released him and took him home after a magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
Levy said officers were justified in using force against Love since he had an umbrella.
"The officers really worked within the limits of our level-of-force policy," he said. "We had no information about who this guy was."
Phyllis Love said her son, who has worked in the garden department at a Lowe's store for several years, was scared when he realized someone was trying to get into the bathroom with him. He put water on his face and on the floor after being hit with pepper spray, she said.
"He didn't know it was a policeman until they busted the door in on him," she said. "He had a knot on his head from where it hit him."
Levy said police wish the confrontation had never occurred. The internal investigation will include a review of Love's complaints that officers laughed at him after realizing he was deaf, he said.
"We'll make whatever efforts we can to resolve this situation, hopefully so this man will be able to trust police in the future so we can help him. Obviously, it's going to be a rough road," he said.
The Associated Press.
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