Fieldnotes: Absence of the United States from the Convention on Disability Rights

It is the position of the United States today that, given the complex set of regulations needed to canvass this broad area, and the enforcement mechanisms necessary to ensure equal opportunity for those with disabilities, the most constructive way to proceed is for each Member State, through action and leadership at home, to pursue within its borders the mission of ensuring that real change and real improvement is brought to their citizens with disabilities.

Thus we hope to participate in order to share our experiences and to offer technical assistance if desired on key principles and elements but given our comprehensive domestic laws protecting those with disabilities, not with the expectation that we will become party to any resulting legal instrument. This may be true also of other delegations representing States with well developed legal protections. (Ralph Boyd for the USA [6/18/2003])

Ralph Boyd, the US Assistant AG for the United States, made the statement above for the US government. In it, he stated that America was a leader in disability rights legislation. While this might have been the case 10 years ago, in the last ten years, the ADA, IDEA, and Rehabilitation Act have all been considerably weakened in the last ten years. It's regrettable that the USA which used to be a global leader in civil rights has fallen so far behind. If the USA did sign the International Convention, it would have to do a considerable amount of work in order to catch up with the standards being set in the document.