Organizer’s Forum: Topic – Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
TUESDAY, September 16th
ORGANIZERS FORUM: CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
You are invited to an *urgent* NDLA Organizer’s Forum call to discuss a state-based action for the Disability Treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) during the August recess. Please join us to take action during this FINAL push for September floor time! It’s now or never; people must get involved now for this to succeed!
With
- David Morrissey, United States International Council on Disabilities
- Kelly Buckland, National Council on Independent Living
TUESDAY, September 16, 1-2 pm Eastern time, 12-1 Central time, 11-12 Mountain time, 10-11 am Pacific time
- Call in number: 1-213-342-3000
- Code: 193134#
To get an idea of who joins our calls, if you are interested in joining on Tuesday, please fill out this quick form!
CART: The call will have real-time captioning (CART)! The website where you will be able to view the captioning is https://2020captioning.1capapp.com. Username: forum. Password: forum. Thank you to the National Disability Leadership Alliance for sponsoring the captioning of this call.
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Organizer’s Forum has a call on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 1-2 pm EST (10-11 am PST).
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Background
The Organizing Workgroup of the National Disability Leadership Alliance hosts these calls the third Tuesday of every month as a resource for disability organizers, in an effort toward building the organizing capacity of the disability community across the country. They generally follow the format of a Welcome followed by 2-3 experts in a given area speaking for a few minutes on their experiences, advice and challenges. The calls include a 20-30 minute question and answer period.
To ask questions via CART: Sign-in to the Chat function on the right side of the transcript and type your question. One of the call facilitators will read out any questions posted there.
Because we want to maximize the generously donated CART services, we will begin the call promptly at 1pm and end the call promptly at 2pm (eastern time). A few other reminders about call etiquette:
- Say your name before each time you speak
- Speak one at a time
- Speak slowly and as clearly as possible
So you can mark your calendars now, Organizer’s Forums are held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. If you have suggestions for call topics or presenters for upcoming topics, please email them to jlehman7@gmail.com or dcoleman@cdrnys.org.
Looking forward to talking with you all!
Jessica Lehman and Diane Coleman
Co-Chairs, National Organizing Workgroup
Date: August 19, 2014
Event: Organizer’s Forum
Consumer: Jessica
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
>> Hi, everybody. This is Jessica.
>> Hi.
>> David’s on.
>> Wonderful. Maybe we’ll give people a couple of minutes to get on.
>> Diane, you’re on the cast today, right?
>> Yes, I am.
>> Jessica: Great.
It seems like we have fewer beeps so why don’t we get started. May name is Jessica Lehman in the Bay Area and work with Senior and Disability Action. I cochair the Organizer’s Forum. For those of you who haven’t been on before, the Organizer’s Forum is a monthly call, designed to and support community organizing in the disability movement and disability communities. I’m going to go ahead and mute everybody because it’s a little hard to hear. So hold on one moment.
Okay. So I was saying, the Organizer’s Forum is really about supporting community organizing around the country. And we have a monthly call. It’s always on the third Tuesday at this time, a one hour call. But because we recognize that a one hour call is not enough, to really dig into the big topics that we discuss, we also have a FaceBook site Organizer’s Forum, and we encourage people to go to that page, Organizer’s Forum, and we also have a Lister, it’s Organizer’s Forum, all one word at Yahoo group.com. You will be sure to get notifications about future calls or follow up about things that were discussed. I definitely want to invite people today, and on any of the Organizer’s Forum call to go on the FaceBook site or on any of the list, anything that stood out to you, thoughts, questions we have, to keep questions going beyond the call today.
So I’m going a little out of order today but let me make sure I’ve covered the bases. The Organizer’s Forum is a project of the National Disability Leadership Alliance, which is a organization of national cross disability. Diane Coleman is a member of NDLA. If you want to hit star 6 to unmute yourself, you want to introduce yourself?
>> I’m Diane Coleman. I am with our organization is one of the steering groups of the NDLA and those steering groups are 14 national groups, with grassroots constituencies with people with disabilities ourselves, which uniquely sets us apart from many of the coalitions in our country that deal with disability.
>> Jessica: Thank you. And NDLA these calls are captioned. You can log on, and type questions there, if you’d like to. And Diane is on the chat. So she can read your questions on the call. We also have time to do spoken and have questions and comments, but either of those will work for folks.
I mention we do a different topic each month. We generally alternate. Every other month we will do an issue based topic like today, talking about something current that is happening, how can people get involved, what does this campaign look like. The other half of the month we do strategy or outreach kind of conversation. So we’ll talk about use in the disability movement, or talk about working with worker rights and labor groups or we’ll talk about how to set up a town hall meeting. And we’re always looking for new topics for those kinds of calls. So if you have ideas, please get in touch with me or with Diane, and let us know.
A couple of reminders on today’s call. Please remember to speak slowly and clearly, and say your name before you speak so we know who’s talking. Please don’t put us on hold. It helps that we can mute everybody but we still have problem with holding. So if you need to step away, just hang up. You can always call right back in.
I think maybe I have covered everything. We will do quick introductions but we ask people to click on the link within the e mail notice that you probably got. It’s kind of a registration forum. You can put your name, organization if you have one, contact information, so that we have a better idea who’s joining the call, so we can get in touch with folks.
The other thing I wanted to let everyone know is we are fortunate not to be able to get transcripts and audio recordings of all of the calls. So you can look on the NDLA website, which is disabilityleadership.org. I think that’s right. Waiting for someone to correct me if I say that wrong. So if you go on the website, you can look up transcripts and recordings of previous organization calls. So if you want to pass that on to people who missed today’s call, please do that.
I think that covers it. I’ll introduce today’s topic briefly. And then I think we can take a moment for introductions. We don’t have a totally unmanageable number of folks on the call so that will be nice to see. Then I will turn it over to our speakers.
The topic today is convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. I imagine a lot of people on the call have familiarity with. There are a group of people working to get this passed through Congress. We have David Morrissey, Kelly Buckland and John we apologize, John, if I mispronounced your name. We’re lucky to have these three to talk about what’s happening and what people can do to get it passed. I will let them talk about that more in just a moment.
Introductions, I’m going to unmute everybody, and then one second. Okay. We should be able to hear everybody now. So let’s start with the West Coast. Folks might want to say your name and organization and city.
>> Larry Grable, Service Center for Independent Life, Claremont, California.
>> Summit Independent Living Center, Montana.
>> Jerry
>> James Living Independent Living Corporation in Boise, Idaho.
>> Jessica: I heard Gary.
>> Gary, Independence First, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
>> This is in Arizona living in Phoenix.
>> Kim Brashear in Oakland, California science fiction of human enhancements and making change media.
>> (Indiscernible).
>> Jessica: I’m sorry. Who was that?
>> This is Jana.
>> Dave hopeful for the conversation we’re going to have.
>> Jessica: We lost some people there. Who else do we have from the West Coast.
>> Marilyn, from California.
>> Jessica: How about Colorado, Southwest, anywhere over there? All right. Let’s move to the midwest. Chicago, anywhere else.
>> Cannington.
>> Jessica: Hi.
>> Hi. Sorry for being late.
>> in Iowa.
>> Judy Smith
>> Jessica: Someone from Maryland.
>> Yeah.
>> from Iowa. Hello some.
>> Hello.
>> Hi.
>> Jessica: Thank you.
>> Judy Smith in Dubuque, Iowa, the State caucus chair for disability.
>> Kim in St. Louis, Missouri.
>> Paulette from Missouri.
>> Jessica: I heard Paula. Go ahead.
>> Paulette Barry from Missouri.
>> Shelby Butler in Springfield, Missouri.
>> from live in Illinois on the chat.
>> Hello. Josh Rouch from the freedom center in Frederick, Maryland.
>> This is Tim, Janice, Sandy, Deborah, in Memphis, Tennessee.
>> Gary Independence Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I spoke out of turn before.
>> Jessica: Thank you.
>> Gary Butler, Ohio State Independent Living, Ohio.
>> Jessica: Thank you. Anybody from the South?
>> Marie Young Options for Independent Living.
>> Shelly Simmons, Statewide Independent Living Council, Georgia.
>> This is Linda Disability Link, still serving the metro Atlanta, Georgia.
>> Jana Atlanta, Georgia.
>> Disability Options Network.
>> Jessica: Where was that?
>> Disability Options Network. In New Castle, Pennsylvania.
>> Jessica: Thank you. Let’s finish up the South. Anybody else from the South?
How about Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia? Anybody from there?
>> from of the blind in Baltimore. The Tacoma Park.
>> Center, project Maryland.
>> Karen Institute for Human Design.
>> Alley Kennington as youth transition fellow.
>> Kathy Brill, parent to parent USA, Washington, D.C.
>> This is Linda also with the National Council for Independent Living in Washington, D.C.
>> Dereka for Independent Living, West Virginia.
>> Jessica: How about the rest of the East Coast.
>> Jeff, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
>> Boston Center for Independent Living.
>> Sam Living Council Vermont and Vermont Center for Independent Living.
>> Jessica: New New Yorkers on the call? Okay. Anybody else who has not yet introduced themselves, go ahead. All right. Well thank you everyone. What a wonderful group we have from all over. I’m going to mute everybody again. So hold on one more time. So Kelly, David and John, go ahead and hit star 6 to unmute yourselves. And on that note I’ll go ahead and turn it all over to you to go ahead and dig into the topics.
>> Am I on?
>> Jessica: You are.
>> David: Thank you so much for organizing the forum. What a great turnout. It’s great to hear so many voices from throughout the country. This is David Morrissey from the United States council on disabilities here in the Washington, D.C. area. And it’s really, really great to have not only the variety of States represented on this call, but also to hear some long time great advocates for CRPD ratification joining this conversation today. Definitely have to shout out to people like Howie and Lindsey, Mary in Ohio and other colleagues in Georgia, Maryland, Gary in Wisconsin. Thank you, all of you, for all the work you’ve been putting in for CRPD ratification. We are so close and it’s going to take a continued push by all of us. This is a 50 State strategy, a 100 Senator call to action, to get this ratification done this year.
As I think Kelly and I will both attest, we have built a big movement, with your help, that has really come to a loud peak over this last six weeks, particularly around the anniversary of the ADA at the end of July. And we can’t lose this momentum. We have got to push it across the finish line, as our Senator supports like Tom Harkin and others on both sides of the political aisle, both Democrats and Republicans are asking us to do, to not give up, to push it through now, in this election year, before we lose the attention of the Senate, and they go off to campaign for their own elections or their colleagues elections in October. So we really have September as a key month to get this done.
This effort has been going on now for multiple years, since President Obama signed the treaty in 2009. With you all’s help we’ve had countless calls like this, and coalition building activities, that, together, I’m so proud, and I hope you’re proud to know that we now have a coalition of over 800 disability and alleys allies from the local state and national levels around the country pushing for this. And it’s not just the disability community. We have solidarity with the leadership for civil and human rights have been helpful and hands on with this as well as human rights watch, another great organization. And we have the private sector, the business community stands behind this, because the disability treaty, CRPD is good for business. Great companies like IBM, AT&T is on the line, Nike, Adobe, Microsoft, many others working to get this done.
On today’s call, I’d like to focus on I think the action and the call to for your support and activity in turning on your colleagues, friends, family and neighbors over this coming four weeks, to be a voice for the treaty. And really rely on Kelly to help chime in on that strategy call to action piece. But then we’re so fortunate to have John on the line as well. John has been providing volunteer support to the campaign for ratification since his retirement from the from federal service as the lead in the disability rights section of the Department of Justice civil rights division. And John participated in the drafting of the treaty as a representative of the Federal Government, and has really been an awesome resource when we get into some of the conversation about what is the treaty, and what is the new package that the Senate now has before them.
So that all questions that you may have can get answered. I will say that you don’t have to be a treaty expert or an international law expert, to be a voice of advocacy. Everyone can have an effective case for why the U.S. coming to the table with the world is the right thing to do. It comes from the heart and your own personal experiences, just as these companies, for example have made the case for why it’s good business, you can make the case, as a person with disability, as a disability rights advocate, or whatever your unique perspective is, as to why you want to see your Senator be a yes vote on that important day, when the vote is with us.
So I think before we turn into some of that nitty gritty and answer your questions and have a good dialogue about it, I would like to just reemphasize the call to action. We have the Senate on recess at the moment, having left town, having heard very loud and clear from the disability community, that we want to see this done in September. And affirmation from members like Tom Harkin on the Democratic side or Dick Durbin, John McCain of Arizona, John Barrasso of Wyoming and many others, that September is possible. We did get it done. But it’s going to take a push because the legislative days on the calendar for the Senate are very short. It’s slightly over two weeks. They’ll arrive back in town and begin work on the 8th of September.
At this point I believe the calendar only has them scheduled to continue working through Tuesday, the 23rd. And then they will be taking off to campaign for themselves, and for their colleagues. So we’ve got to get them while we can get them for this vote. But we don’t want to wait until September 8. Because right now, they’re home in your States, maybe getting a little R&R, but also doing things like town hall meetings. And you have an opportunity to be a voice for the treaty in forums like that, as well as requesting to meet your member while they’re home, over this next couple of weeks, until they return on September 8.
Even things like Labor Day picnics or activities where they get out and meet the districts, are your opportunity to take their hand and say I’m looking to you, Senator, to be a supporter for ratification. So this immediate opportunity is one we really want to seize and I think we can talk about those, and certainly how our office here, can support your efforts.
I also want to give a shout out to DREDF, Susan Henderson, Rhonda Neuhaus have been involved in supporting local activists. So we thank them and look to them and offer their support to you as well.
Let me stop and turn it over to Kelly Buckland, Executive Director for NCIL, on where we are and the push moving forward. Kelly.
>> Kelly: Thanks, David. I think you did a really good job of kind of summing that up. But I also did really want to just say what a great group of people that were on the phone. It was really good to hear a lot of my good friends out there, and good to hear such broad coverage. And frankly, from my opinion, such great participation from the centers for independent living out there, as well as Statewide independent living councils. I think the thing I would like to emphasize, and then we can get into the discussion part of this, is what David David’s kind of outlined this pretty well, but really, this is pretty much the last push we’re going to get. And we have some really good energy in Washington, D.C., in July. And we had some really good showings from the disability community about how much we want to get this CRPD done. And Senator Harkin guaranteed us at the NCIL conference that he would get this on the floor in September. And he ended that by saying and he knows how to do that. He’s been serving long enough that he knows how to make the Senate work. And so I believe in him. I believe he’s going to do that.
We can get some calendar time in it September. And this is really critical that we make this happen now. And so I want to thank everybody for all of the energy and time and effort you’ve been putting into this. But then I’m also going to kind of ask you to double your efforts in this last push, particularly in those that we’re States that we’re targeting. I know I’ve seen a lot of energy coming from those States but we really need you to continue up to the end here. So with that, I think I’ll turn it back to you, David, to just kind of either turn it over to John, or put it out for questions, answers. I don’t know where you want to go next.
>> David: Sure. Thanks, Kelly. I think what I’d like to do one more thing before we open it up for conversation, and turn it to John as well, is you mentioned target States. And I want to say, there are some Republican members, which is where we need to pick up our remaining about five votes, if we’re going to pass… of course we want more than that, because we don’t want to just squeak by. We want a resounding bipartisan success. I will read out a list of target States so you’re aware particularly where we’re interested. But I don’t want anyone to come away hearing that, thinking your Senator is easy or done, or is never going to happen. And therefore you shouldn’t weigh in. Exactly the opposite. Please weigh in. This really is in the final push. Every member of the Senate will be putting their hand up or down for this treaty on the day of this vote. And they need to hear from you.
So again, it is a 50 state strategy. It is a 100 Senator appeal. But particularly, I’m so pleased we’ve got folks from Missouri. As you know, Senator Blunt has been looking long and hard at this. He’s still in play. Senator Burr from North Carolina, very important. Both Senators from Georgia. The Georgians have been working hard. We’ve just got to push them across the line. Dan Coats of Indiana. If there is anyone from Indiana, we continue to look to him. In Mississippi, senator Cochran is particularly of interest, now that he has passed his own primary challenge. He can I think be there for us. But he needs to hear from Mississippi in a loud way, to back him up.
He’s one that I think is really true the case of saying, to your Senator, we’ve got your back. And if you support the disability community, we’re supporting you on election day. Great to hear Iowans on the line. Senator Harkin is a leader but Senator Grassley is out there and your voice can be helpful. Lindsey Graham, let’s work on him. Utah, Senator Hatch, a long time supporter on disability policy issues, he’s been a little harder on the treaty, but he’s still listening. And he should hear your voice as he listens.
Mike Johannes of Nebraska, still very much potential. Senator Portland from Ohio. Thanks to those from Ohio for all you’ve done. It’s your hard work that has kept Senator Portland looking at this and considering. My own state, Kansas, Senator Roberts, while he’s I it’s not been encouraging, it’s not over. With Senator Dole’s leadership we continue to look for Senator Roberts to be with us that day.
Another from Carolina would be Tim Scott, the new Senator from North Carolina. And then finally, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, I would like to ask our Mississippi folks to consider. A little harder than Senator Cochran but if you’re calling one, let’s call them both.
So there is that list but again, the take away is all Senators are in play and all Senators need to hear from advocates on this issue. So with that, what I’d like to do is maybe divide the dialogue into two sections to organize our thinking so the conversations about flow. Whip is on the action and the one is on the action and tactic to get it done and the second would be content around the CRPD. That’s where I think John can obviously be a great asset on both these conversations, but particularly on that latter topic about the treaty itself and what is this package. We really look to John for his expertise. But seems like a way to maybe organize the flow a little bit.
If that sounds right for folks in fact John, you’re unmuted so I will throw it to you. Shall we start more on the action since that’s where we’ve been so far today?
>> John: That sounds right. The only thing I would add for Tennessee folks to think about Senator Alexander, now that his primary is over. I think he should hear from us.
>> Big supporter. Which had a lot to do with independent living. We got a good relationship with him and his staff right now. So I think he’s a good I think he’s a really good person to mark. So I think thanks for bringing it up, John.
>> John: John, unless
>> John, do you have anything else?
>> John: No. We should go ahead and get the content as well.
>> Okay. Let’s unmute the group or maybe they do that themselves, star 6.
>> Jessica: Its up to you. If you want people to hit star 6 to unmute themselves, they can. If you would rather unmute everybody, I can do that.
>> Whatever your experience thinks is the smarter way to go.
>> Jessica: Why don’t we start and ask people to hit star 6 to unmute yourselves if you’d like to speak and if you have problems we will unmute everybody towards the end.
>> This is Amina Crux. Have you given up on flake? Is that why we’re not listed as a target state anymore?
>> I’ll start. This is John. No, I don’t think we’ve given up on him although he did vote no in the committee. And it’s usually rare for someone to change their vote. But we are still hoping for Senator McCain to try and get him to be supportive of the treaty. He was concerned about abortion issues and a little bit about U.S. sovereignty which as we can get into discussion are really not issues in this treaty. And but I think we should still keep trying for him but I think you have to be realistic to know that if he’s already voted no for the version of the treaty that’s going to come up, it would be pretty heavy lifting to get him to change.
>> This is Jeff from Pennsylvania. What about Senator Toomey. We heard he was off and heard during the conference he was on. You didn’t mention him earlier.
>> John: I’ve met with him. He said he had no problems with the treaty. Like a lot of these Republican Senators, they’re concerned about any association that they have with the UN, no matter how tangential or silly from our perspective. I think he got so much grief from the people of Pennsylvania over his position on gun control that he was reticent to take what might be viewed as yet another liberal position. But I still think he’s in play.
>> Yeah. The issue he has is Santorum, the former Senator, has a lot to do with that.
>> John, this is Colleen. We’ve been trying to encourage Senator Blunt to change his vote and you and I have talked about this before. Tony’s been to see him. When a couple of us were in his office a couple of weeks ago, when we were up there for NCIL. I told him, I asked him if he knew about the veterans press conference and he said no, which was disappointing to me because I had sent the information to his staffer. But he seems to care about what the veterans think. So today, we have the head of the St. Louis chapter of the PVA going to see his staffer, who’s going to be down at the V.A. in St. Louis. His staffer told us, when we were meeting with him, that he really loves the Doles. So I asked Senator Harkin if he would please ask Senator Dole to call him again. Is there anything else that you think do you know anymore about him? Have you met with him? What are your…
>> I have met with him. The issue he always talks to me about is abortion. You know, we have made clear to him that this treaty does not create abortion rights. It’s a non discrimination treaty, and that the amendments that put that were being put forward on abortion really would have allowed for discrimination against women with disabilities.
I think he is still in play. I think Tony Coelho thinks he’s going to be difficult but I think the veterans angle is wise. Senator Dole is calling a number of these Senators personally. We can make sure that Senator Blunt is on his list. Also, he’s pretty close to Steny Hoyer from the and house together. So we’re going to try that. I think, Colleen, what you’re talking about, bringing some of the Senators in there, has proven very compelling to a number of them. The other thing we’re doing, it’s sort of strange bedfellows for those of us doing disability for a long time but the Chamber of Commerce and disability groups have really turned it on and really pushing. And it’s been and so that’s another avenue we’re going to try with this group of Senators.
>> I did just get a letter from Centene Corporation sent to him about a week and a half ago strongly supporting the treaty and that’s right in his backyard. I do think they have been a supporter of his in the past and they talked with his staff about Medicaid issues but they came out with a strong letter. They mentioned in the letter the Chamber’s stance on this.
>> John: Right.
>> And the National Association of Manufacturers, is a fairly conservative group is supporting the treaty pretty strongly as well.
>> National Association of Manufacturers? Okay. I’ll send that to his staff too. Okay. I’ll send that to his staff. Thanks, John.
>> John: Thanks.
If it there are no other questions, let me tell this group, thank you all for being here
>> This is Diane Coleman. I’m sorry. I was on mute and I didn’t realize it because I’m usually not. But I wanted to pick up on a strange bedfellows thing for a minute, if I could because there may be a little extra tiny piece of ammunition that folks can use.
As you know Not Dead Yet deals with the assisted suicide and euthanasia issues putting us in the position of what deals with strange bedfellows from the conservative side of the political aisle. We don’t take a position on the abortion issue at all but a lot of pro life groups do work in coalition, State by State on opposing assisted suicide and euthanasia. Last year and the year before I put out a blog on the Not Dead Yet blog on why we support the CRPD including their three different positions that relate to our issue, one of them labeled right to life. And that blog is available. If you go to our I’ll send it out to the announcement list of groups that we have. But if you just go to Not Dead Yet.org and use the search engine to put in CRPD you can go straight to that blog and it may be something that some folks can use if they’re dealing with groups that are bringing up those kinds of issues.
>> John: That’s great, Diane. I think that would be very helpful with Senator Johannes from Nebraska and Senator Blunt and Senator Flake who are the three Senators who have raised those kinds of issues. And I’ll go there myself and see what I can do with it because one of the things that one of the arguments that we have made to them, from the treaty, is this treaty says, for the first time, in my experience, in any disability rights law of this type, that it is an act of discrimination to withhold food and water from people with disability on the basis of disability. And that was a very important thing to get into the treaty. And it’s there specifically. And I think that’s another part of that same argument.
>> It is, absolutely. It’s one of the provisions that we cite in the blog.
>> John: Let me just say go ahead. I’m sorry.
>> I just wanted to say about Flake, I know when we met with him face to face the last time that we went to his office he denied that he had any concerns about abortion. And the last time was more concerned about was it just was you know, he just talked about the other countries that have signed on that have horrible human rights, and that it proves that the treaties were useless. So just an FYI.
>> John: You know, I love that argument. And I’ve talked to other Senators who say that. But I think the truth of the matter is CRPD is making a difference in countries across the globe. Not just you know country like China and Russia are changing their disability rights laws. Are they doing it as much as we are? No. Should they be doing much more? Yes. But the truth is that all of these countries have a long way to go and we all know what a struggle it is to change the laws and change people’s minds and how they approach things. And it’s a long and we’ve done it here with bipartisan support and funding. Other countries don’t have that. But I think you can’t say just because North Korea or Iran doesn’t have human rights, and Ethiopia is building a light rail system that will be fully accessible, countries in it South America, the CRPD is making a change. And I think you said is going to try to put together some information to help calendar this argument but the treaty is making a difference. And the lack of American leadership, the lack of America being part of working with these countries is harming it, not helping it.
>> Thank you.
>> John: That’s a good lead in. When you call is there someone calling?
>> No. Go for it, John. Thank you.
>> John: Okay. Here’s what we are confronted with usually. It’s been concerns about, you know, U.S. sovereignty. Somehow by being part of this treaty we’re going to give up sovereignty. The other argument we hear all the time is home schooling. Changes have been made to the treaty by Senator Barrasso at the community level that have strengthened the notion of U.S. sovereignty and home schooling. Home schooling announces nothing in this treaty will restrict the ability of parents to decide to home school their children. There was nothing in the treaty really that would have done that. But the home schoolers were very concerned about that. So that issue has been put to rest.
The U.S. sovereignty issue, I would like to think people think Senator Dole and Senator McCain who became disabled fighting for this country would be in favor of a treaty that would with jeopardize U.S. sovereignty but that aside the veterans groups that have been very active in their support have said the same thing, that they… that this in fact is the opposite. It will extend American ideals, the view that all people have rights, and that particularly people with disabilities have the ability to be independent and free and make their own choices. This is a treaty that is going to accomplish that and it’s taking American values, and having them adopted around the world. But at the more mundane level there is language in the treaty. There is a committee of experts, mostly people with disabilities, advocates, Professors, who meet once a year and review reports, and make recommendations to countries. But these recommendations are just that.
Senator Barrasso’s amendment to the treaty basically says that the U.S. no one can force the U.S. to take any actions that it doesn’t want to so U. S. sovereignty is preserved. If you run into that both on home schooling and U.S. sovereignty, the treaty has been strengthened to take care of those concerns. And I think usud and dreadif have information to assist you if you run into those arguments.
>> This is a nice for me to mention our website, www.disabilitytreaty.org. It has one page fact sheets and other information about the consider PDF, which I’m reminded. My apologies for not at the beginning saying the CRPD stands for the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The convention is not a conference that we sometimes you think of the word convention, but rather it’s a synonym for treaty, where the world has come together and negotiated a conventional way of thinking about the rights of people with disabilities that the world can use as a guide star, as countries develop their own laws related to disability rights. The package that the U.S. Senate has before them now has requires no changes to the U.S. laws on disability. Because of having the ADA, the fair housing act, and other pieces of law, the United States can ratify with the package that John just described with these amendments, that requires us not to have to change U.S. law. It also requires no new budgetary outlays, no new spending for the U.S. to ratify. And yet the opportunity is really huge, for the U.S. to come to the table, as a ratified party, to share the knowledge we’ve developed in our years, making accessible transportation, accessible classrooms. It is an opportunity for us to share our knowledge with the world. And to be at the table in a listening, to learn from countries around the world, and how they’re doing. So that together, we’re moving forward to build a global society of non discrimination, and equality for people with disabilities.
Other questions? Let’s just open it up now.
>> Good afternoon.
>> This is Jeff
>> Calling from Georgia.
>> Yes.
>> Hi. A question for you. We have been working, trying to get an appointment with Isaacson and we can’t even get a return call or e mail. We’ve trying to get some people recruit some people to go to some of the town hall meetings that he’s having within the next few weeks, and we’re also planning on doing a… flooding him with phone calls. Is he pretty much still on the fence regarding ratifying the treaty? Do you know?
>> David: I would say we’re very encouraged about Senator Isaacson. He’s not public, or he’s not committed in writing. So we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, and having the community’s voice keep asking for those appointments, and showing up to those town halls. John.
>> John: I would agree with that because we’re counting on him to support the treaty. His staff has been very positive. He has been positive. And we’re hoping that Coca Cola has been very supportive, and supporting the treaty as well. And we’re hopeful that not only will he support the treaty, but he’ll bring along your other Senator. So I think working with both of those is very important because I think if we’re going to get to 67, those two have to be there with us.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> This is Jeff. Is there a place I can find which areas the consider CRPD you mentioned education, I think somebody mentioned healthcare. Is there something that talks about like… yeah.
>> On the disability treaty.org website, at the very top, there’s a link that says CRPD. And it provides you links that you can click to download a one pager, and there’s some frequently asked questions, et cetera. And then, also, at the bottom of every page on the disability treaty.org website is a link to used’s main web page USICD we have a lot of resources there including the treaty itself. And under initiatives, you’ll see an initiative for the convention rights of persons with disabilities. It says read the treaty, and you can click it and it will provide you the full text.
Each article in the treaty has a title that lets you know what it’s about. And that includes things like education, community living, respect for home and family, children with disabilities, the right to life, equal recognition before the law, and other topics. And our staff is also always available on this or any other topic, including if your local group would like another call at any time, we’re always happy to support that, both to support action for the treaty, or just education and awareness raising, giving a deeper dive to walk folks through the treaty itself.
>> Thank you.
>> Jessica: I’m thinking maybe I’ll unmute everybody in case anybody has trouble getting in with a question or comment.
>> Sounds great.
>> Jessica: Everyone should be able to speak now. There’s a few more minutes if someone else has a question or comment.
>> and I would like to in Phoenix again. I would like you to send something out about some of those improvements that have been made as a result of the treaty in countries. That would be really good for us to be able to use with our Senators. Thank you.
>> We are developing a one pager now, to do just that, to summarize the new package that the foreign relations committee recently passed, that…
>> Another thing I would point out, while we have a moment here is on disability treaty.org at the top there’s a link that says action center and there are all sorts of actions you can take. Of course those calls to Senators are particularly important. And by clicking the link that says call your Senator, you put in your zip code and it will give you your Senator’s phone numbers and some talking points to help you with your call.
Additionally, social media is huge for the treaty. There’s a big movement for ratification on line. Using Twitter and FaceBook, we encourage. And there’s links for using social media at the action center. We have a tell your story link, why the CRPD matters to you. If you’ve ever traveled abroad and experienced barriers or discrimination, your experience is one that puts the treaty to life. Or if you sought to study abroad and lost of the opportunity because there was a perception that because you have a disability, you wouldn’t be able to get around, or that you would experience prejudice in other countries. This is an opportunity for you to share that story. And those are the stories that Senators listen and we make sure they get those.
There’s a link for a petition to support CRPD. We delivered to the Senate foreign relations committee in November at the last meeting, a collection of five different groups that they started. We worked with the groups to bring them together and had over 80,000, including
>> Diana
>> Veteran group on it. Still join petitions there, as well as someone has e mailed me that on move on.org, there is a petition that is available at moveon.org. Backslash ussenatorsvote yes. You can put disability in the search engine. So a variety of ways and things folks can do, not only yourselves but spread the word to new advocates so they can take those actions too.
>> John: This is John again. I don’t know if any of you saw, there was a op ed piece by a VFW commander in a Utah paper that was a very compelling story. I think if you can get a position published in your local newspaper, even if your Senators are Democrats who are supporting the treaty, building awareness and support for the treaty through your local newspaper is a very useful way to build support.
David, is there some way that this group can see some of the things that have been written?
>> David: Absolutely. On USICD.org website, and on disability treaty.org, there is an archive of every story that the press has ever run or a story in the editor. That’s a big archive. You can scan that and find a variety of sample letters and letters to the editor. Jessica, is it possible to also disseminate any attachments to this audience, or to put them on the archive of today’s call?
>> Jessica: Yeah. We can do either. If you want to send me information, I will send that out. And we can also put it on the website. Doesn’t matter, if you’re not on my Yahoo group yet. Please go to Yahoo group.com so you can join we will send it out.
>> John: We can put there the one pager that you asked for, summarizing the changes to the treaty package. But we also have a just put together a quick collection of articles and letters to the editor that have just occurred this year. So a smaller batch but very fresh and recent. So we’ll get that out today to you.
>> John: One thing I don’t think we have been working on is something to also which you also requested which is some of the positive things being done around the world because of the CRPD. And I think we’ll see what we can do to come up with a one pager that responds to the type of criticism you’re getting from Senate offices.
>> That’s great. I just wanted to say, I get almost every day, copies of editorials related to CRPD from Gabby Brown. I think she’s working in partner with DREDF. She sends out almost every day or every other day clips of editorials that went out and published all over the country.
>> Yes. Gabby been working for us, new partners group has been the for the ratification campaign. I will see if we can still add folks or maybe yeah. Thanks for reminding me about that. If folks are interested, send me your e mail address. Project info Jessica is going to put on the site as well and in the follow up e mail and I will see if we can get you added to the daily clips distribution.
>> Jessica: I’m realizing we are at the end of our hour. So I want to go ahead and wrap up. David, Kelly, and John, is there any last words that you need to mention? Are we good?
>> Just another big thank you for everybody being on the call and your work out there in the field.
>> And I’d like to relate, the work you’ve been doing is really making a difference. Thank you for it and keep it up.
>> And I’ll say the same. Thank you and offer our continued support. This Eileen and I here in the office are at your service. Call or e mail, Jessica will send that contact info. It’s also on those websites that I gave you.
>> Jessica: That’s great. A couple last things before people jump off. First a huge thank you to Kelly and David and John. That was an excellent call. I know we all appreciate the information and all the follow up information that we’ve talked about. Thank you to our Captioner for making this call accessible. We really appreciate your help on that.
Our next call will be on Tuesday, September 16. And the topic is going to be on supportive healthcare decision making. It’s going to be led by and Samantha Crane from the Advocacy Network. Mark your calendars for that. Again I know this hour was not enough to talk about all the CRPD related issues and questions so please join us on the Yahoo group and on FaceBook so that we did keep the discussion going and to make sure we get this treaty passed. Thank you, everybody. And we’ll talk to you next time.
>> Thank you in L.A.
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.