Obama Signs Disability Rights Convention

On Friday, July 24, 2009, President Obama will sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is the first United Nations Convention that Obama will sign in his Presidency. It is estimated that there are 650 million people in the world with disabilities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities seeks to improve the standard of living while increasing employment opportunities and community access for all of them. The Convention also provides legal protection for people with disabilities, which many U.N. member states unfortunately do not have. The Convention is moving quickly; it opened for signatures on March 30, 2007 and there have already been 140 signatories. On its opening day there were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and one ratification of the Convention. The Convention entered into force on May 3, 2008. Next, the Convention will go to the Senate to provide advice and consent to the treaty.

Now that Obama has signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it will be interesting to see what U.N. Convention he will move forward on next.