Friday, November 22, 2013

Kerry Makes Pitch for Human Rights Treaty

Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today on behalf of the international human rights treaty of the United Nations called Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which you can read here. Kerry told Senators, "There are countries where children with disabilities are warehoused from birth, denied even a birth certificate, not a real person, and treated as second-class citizens every single days of their life… What we did here at home with the Americans with Disabilities Act hasn’t even been remotely realized overseas. And in too many places, what we take for granted here hasn’t been granted at all."
Video of his testimony and the text of his speech is here.