Aspies For Freedom

I noticed the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been open for signatures for the past month or so. I noticed that the UK has signed it but not ratified it yet (only one country - Algeria had ratified it). I think it's important that the UK does ratify this treaty and shows its commitment to upholding disabled person's rights. Please put pressure on your politicians (MP etc) to do so at the earliest opportunity. More information is on the UN Website - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which contains the text of the convention, which countries have signed, video footage about it etc.

In a correction to the earlier post I meant to write Jamaica, not Algeria. Is there an edit function on this forum?

Hopefully President Bush will sign the treaty and that the Senate will ratify it.

Much as I admire your hope, President Bush won't even sign a bill that sets a date for the American troops coming home from Iraq, so what chances do you have of him and the Senate signing (and implementing) a treaty about the rights of the disabled when the misadventure in Iraq has created a lot of disabled veterans (whether through physical injuries or things like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)?

Having said that it is a Democratic administration, so in theory America should be more left-leaning than it has been in recent years. I still don't see univeral, free, tax payer funded health care on the horizon though - or any politician with the gumption to start impeachment proceedings against the President who was elected not by the people in 2000 but by a court (who conveniently stopped counting the votes when George was ahead). I sometimes think America is going down the realms of a monarchy the way you run your presidential system with both father and son being President. I mean - George W Bush isn't exactly the role model that you'd expect to become president is he?

I wonder what good it would do even if the the UN got every country to ratify it. The UN has absolutely no power to get anyone to do anything. Example is the 17 resolutions against Saddam Hussein which he ignored. And the very first UN resolution to demand that Israel give back the land taken in the 1948 war. They still have not given it back.

I agree with you.  I don't believe Bush would sign this treaty.  The conservatives in Republican Party would not go for it.  The right would prettu much have the U.S. leave the U.N.  Personaly I would like to see a third party emerge.  But the system is set up to protect the two party monopoly, so there is really no chance of having a third party with any chance of winning and I don't see any meaningful reform of the system since both parties are only there to perpetuate their own power.