This pertinent action alert has arrived through Justice For All, of the AAPD: American Association of Persons with Disabllities. Please pass this on to organizations and inviduals.
Very best wishes, :) LDMF.
Individual Email.
For Reference Only:
Linda D. Misek-Falkoff, Ph.D., J.D.
President, The National Disability Party.
Member Disability Caucus to the UN Disability Treaty/
Recording Secretary, Communications Coordination Committee for the UN.
For Reference Only:
Linda D. Misek-Falkoff, Ph.D., J.D.
President, The National Disability Party.
Member Disability Caucus to the UN Disability Treaty/
Recording Secretary, Communications Coordination Committee for the UN.
Continuing Invitation/Galleries:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/PICTURE-IT-AT-THE-UN
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/PICTURE-IT-AT-THE-UN
----- Original Message -----
From: "Justice For All Moderator" <jfa@...>
To: <justice@...>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 10:05 PM
Subject: ACTION ALERT!! Help Get U.S. to Support U.N. Convention
>
> >From Mary Dolan of the World Committee on Disability
> <MaryEDolan@...>:
>
> HELP GET THE U.S. TO BACK DISABILITY RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE WITH
> DISABILITIES AROUND THE WORLD
>
> Thank you for your continued leadership on the UN
> Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. We
> are stepping up the campaign to get House Majority Leader
> Tom Delay to schedule for a floor vote House Concurrent
> Resolution 169 (attached for information) which calls for
> the US to support of the Convention and to send a
> delegation of people with disabilities to represent the US
> at the next UN Convention Ad Hoc Committee meeting from May
> 24 - June 4, 2004. Also attached is an action alert that I
> ask you to circulate to your constituency. It is important
> that we flood the phone lines to certain congressional
> offices this month as we want to change the
> Administration's position in time for the next Ad Hoc
> Committee meetings.
>
> An identical bill has been introduced in the Senate,
> however, it has been referred to the Senate Foreign
> Relations Committee and no action has been taken on it. We
> need to get letters from disability organizations to
> Senators Lugar and Biden - Chairman, and ranking Democrat
> respectively on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -
> asking them to take up Senate Concurrent Resolution 52 in
> the Foreign Relations Committee as soon as possible, and to
> sign on as sponsors of the legislation. A sample letter is
> attached.
>
> Summary of actions requested:
>
> 1. Circulate the action alert to your constituencies and
> encourage them to phone Rep. Delay this month.
>
> 2. If your organization has not already sent a letter to
> Rep. Delay, please do so now. A sample letter is attached
> to the Grassroots Action Alert.
>
> 3. If your organization has sent a letter to Rep. Delay
> please call 202-225-4000 and ask for a response. We need
> leadership and grassroots to call in.
>
> 4. Please send a letter from your organization to Senators
> Lugar and Biden as soon as possible. A sample letter is
> attached to this memo.
>
> ===========================
>
> SAMPLE LETTER TO SENATORS LUGAR AND BIDEN
>
>
> INSERT DATE
>
> FAX # 202-224-0836
> Senator Richard Lugar
> Dirksen Senate Office Building
> Washington DC 20510
>
> FAX # 202-228-1608
> Senator Joseph Biden
> Dirksen Senate Office Building
> Washington DC 20510
>
> Dear Senator:
>
> I write to request that you take up for consideration
> in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee S Con Res 52
> expressing the Sense of Congress that the U.S. should
> support a U.N. convention on disability rights, and calling
> for the U.S. to send a delegation of people with
> disabilities to the Convention Ad Hoc Committee. I also
> ask for you to join on as a co-sponsor of this bill.
>
> There is some urgency with this bill. The next
> meeting of the UN Ad Hoc Committee starts on May 24th. It
> is critical that we send the appropriate delegation to
> those meetings, and that the position of the U.S. turn to
> one of active support.
>
> The United States is a leader on disability around
> the world. We must continue to show our leadership through
> U.S. support and involvement in the proposed U.N.
> Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, so
> that the rights of people with disabilities throughout the
> world will be enforced and protected.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> ================================
>
> GRASSROOTS ACTION ALERT
>
> DISABILITY ADVOCATES - URGENT ACTION NEEDED
>
> HELP GET THE U.S. TO BACK INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION
> FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AROUND THE WORLD
>
> To: Disability Advocates
> Date: April 13, 2004
>
> House Concurrent Resolution 169
>
> Pressure must be put on House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-
> TX) to schedule and support House Concurrent Resolution
> 169, calling for U.S. support of a United Nations human
> rights convention (legally binding international treaty) on
> the rights of people with disabilities. The bill is co-
> sponsored by the Chairman of the U.S. House of
> Representatives International Relations Committee Rep.
> Henry Hyde (R-IL), and the ranking Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos
> (D-CA), and has the unanimous support of the House
> International Relations Committee.
>
> The legislation:
>
> (1) calls for the United States to play a leading role in
> the drafting of a United Nations convention and to work
> toward its adoption. The Convention should affirm the
> human rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, and
> should be, among other things, consistent with the spirit
> of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, the United
> States Constitution, and other rights enjoyed by U.S.
> citizens with disabilities; and
>
> (2) urges the President to instruct the Secretary of State
> to send to the UN Ad Hoc Committee meetings a U.S.
> delegation that includes individuals with disabilities who
> are recognized leaders in the U.S. disability rights
> movement. (So far, no one with a disability has
> represented the U.S. in meetings on the Convention!!)
>
> Status of the International Convention on Disability within
> the Administration
>
> For over two years, member nations of the U.N. have been
> working to draft a convention. The U.N. human rights
> system has traditionally not considered disability as
> within its scope, so this represents an important turning
> point for people with disabilities worldwide. The U.S.
> government has taken a backseat in this process, stating
> that it will not sign such a treaty because it has a
> comprehensive domestic law. This undermines the U.S. as a
> leader on disability internationally and also the
> importance of the convention itself.
>
> ACTIONS NEEDED
>
> House Majority Leader Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX) is in charge of
> scheduling all bills. We are asking disability advocates
> around the country to call the office of Rep. Delay
> throughout this month of April and ask him to immediately
> schedule House Concurrent Resolution 169 and to support it.
> If we don't pressure Rep. Delay to schedule this bill, we
> have little chance that the U.S. will support this
> convention, which seeks to preserve and enforce disability
> rights around the world.
>
> We are in particular need of people from Texas to contact
> Rep. Delay, but we need everyone to contact him.
>
> Here is what we ask you to do:
>
> 1. Call Rep. Delay at his Majority Leader Office at 202-
> 225-4000.
>
> 2. Introduce yourself and tell the person who answers the
> phone that you are calling to ask Congressman Delay to
> schedule immediately for a vote on the House floor House
> Concurrent Resolution 169 having to do with the UN
> Convention on Disability. Also, ask for Rep. Delay's
> support of the bill.
>
> 3. Remind them that the bill was voted out of the U.S.
> House of Representatives International Relations Committee
> with unanimous support.
>
> 4. Tell them you will call again in a week to find out when
> the bill is scheduled for a vote and you expect to receive
> a date certain then.
>
> ONGOING EFFORTS
>
> An identical bill is beginning to make headway in the
> Senate. It is being sponsored by Senator Harkin and has
> been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
> We will let you know when the time is right for similar
> grassroots action on the Senate legislation.
>
> An international convention has the potential to provide
> legally binding standards on disability rights for all UN
> member nations that sign and ratify it. For millions of
> people with disabilities worldwide who have no domestic
> protections at all to protect and promote their rights,
> this is the most important international development in
> history. Americans with disabilities will also benefit
> greatly from this convention as it will, among other
> things, raise the profile of disability as a subject of
> human rights. Disability must no longer be marginalized in
> the human rights framework but dealt with on the same level
> and with the same commitment as other human rights issues.
>
> For more information on the proposed convention visit:
> http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/
>
> =================================
>
> SAMPLE LETTER TO HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER
>
> FAX NUMBER 202-225-5117
>
> INSERT DATE
>
> The Honorable Tom Delay
> House Majority Leader
> H 107, The Capitol
> Washington, DC 20515
>
> Dear Congressman Delay:
>
> I write to ask you to schedule for a vote on the
> House floor as soon as possible House Concurrent Resolution
> 169 expressing the Sense of Congress that the U.S. should
> support a U.N. convention on disability rights, and calling
> for the U.S. to send a delegation of people with
> disabilities to the Convention Ad Hoc Committee. I also
> ask for your support of this bill, which has bipartisan
> support from the House International Relations Committee.
>
> There is some urgency with this bill. The next
> meeting of the UN Ad Hoc Committee starts on May 24th. It
> is critical that we send the appropriate delegation to
> those meetings, and that the position of the U.S. turn to
> one of active support.
>
> The United States is a leader on disability around
> the world. We must continue to show our leadership through
> U.S. support and involvement in the proposed U.N.
> Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, so
> that the rights of people with disabilities throughout the
> world will be enforced and protected.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> # # #
>
> =====================
>
> JOIN AAPD! There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a
> national coalition of people with disabilities and join
> AAPD today. http://www.aapd-dc.org
>
>
> JFA ARCHIVES. All JFA postings from 1995 to present are
> available at:
> http://www.aapd-dc.org/JFA/JFAabout.html
>
>
> NOTE: Some Internet Providers (including AOL, Earthlink and
> Juno) may see JFA postings as spam because of the large
> volume of JFA mail recipients and fail to deliver the
> posting. If this happens, the JFA system may automatically
> unsubscribe some email addresses. Should you stop receiving
> JFA Alerts, please subscribe to JFA again as per the
> instructions at
> http://www.aapd-dc.org/JFA/JFAsubscribing.html
> You may also need to contact your service provider to find
> out how to prevent JFA postings from being recognized as
> spam.
>
> PLEASE EMPTY YOUR EMAIL INBOX REGULARLY. JFA automatically
> deletes subscribers that are over their message quota.
> If you stop using an account please unsubscribe that old
> account.
>
> With hundreds of inbound emails and thousands of outbound
> emails daily, JFA can not respond to every message.
>
> We thank you for your understanding and continued
> outstanding advocacy!
>
>
> JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
> American Association of People with Disabilities
> http://www.aapd-dc.org/JFA/JFAabout.html
>
> =====================================================================
> Justice-For-All FREE Subscriptions
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@...
> with one or the other in the body of your message:
> subscribe justice
> unsubscribe justice
>