Student organizations at Syracuse University are fighting for the rights of people with disabilities by encouraging the campus to support U.S. Senate ratification of a United Nations treaty.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act, would be the first international treaty to officially recognize the rights of people with disabilities. Specific provisions include protection against discrimination; designing products and services to be usable by all people; making information accessible via Braille, audio and large-print, and other measures.

The Disability Law Society, a student organization from the College of Law and the Disability Law and Policy Program, developed an online campaign known as SU4crpd, said Arlene Kanter, a professor at the College of Law.

“The treaty failed to gain support last December by five votes from the Senate, but the vote can come up again any time,” Kanter said.

In November, a Senate committee held two additional meetings about the treaty’s ratification.

The SU4crpd project created a Facebook page encouraging students and faculty at SU to call in their senators and ask for their support in the ratification of the UN’s first international treaty for disability rights.

On Tuesday, which is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Disability Law Society will encourage people at the College of Law to leave all interior doors open to symbolically open doors and break down barriers for people with disabilities, according to the UN’s website.  

Kanter, who’s also the director of the College of Law Disability Law and Policy Program, said the treaty was created in 2006 and has received 138 signatures from other countries since then.

“The ratification of the treaty for the U.S. means our laws are consistent with international human rights norms,” Kanter added. “Most importantly, it presents a paradigm shift with how we view people with disabilities.”

Angel Baker, a third-year law student, said some do not support the ratification of the treaty because they believe it may infringe on U.S. sovereignty on issues such as education and the definition of disability.

Some people, Baker said, interpret the treaty as banning homeschooling, but she said that’s not the case. Baker added that the treaty permits countries to choose how to implement the articles of the treaty according to their government, as long as the country does not go against the principles of the treaty.

“The CRPD does not give a definition of disability. It permits countries to define it for themselves. Some say it would impose the Unites States’ definition of disability, but that is not the case,” Baker said.

Baker, the secretary of the Disability Law Society, said the United States would be more credible if the Senate ratified the treaty.

“The CRPD would not make the U.S. change anything, but it allows the U.S. to have a foothold in the international arena to advance people with disabilities, and we will have more leverage,” she said.

People might also oppose the ratification of the treaty because they believe it does not adequately address the issues of people who identify with a mental disability, said Diane Wiener, the director of the Disability Cultural Center.

“I am behind the passing of the CRPD, but I also would support an update to the treaty that would reflect the support of people who self-identify as victims of psychiatric oppression,” Wiener said.

One issue that is not addressed within the UN’s treaty, Wiener said, is forcible psychiatric treatment against a person’s consent.

Kanter, the director of the Disability Law and Policy Program, said that overall, the treaty will help uphold an international standard to respect the rights of people with disabilities for the first time.

Said Kanter: “It’s sad in the year 2013 that we still have to argue that people with disabilities are entitled to the same basic rights as everyone else.”

Published on December 3, 2013 at 12:34 am

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu