THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES..............

For more than three and a half decades awareness of the Disabled and an Inclusive response to those with Special Needs have developed and solidified at almost all levels of life in the  United States and increasingly in the European Union Countries.  Local, State, National, policies and laws, and pastoral statements and projects, have furthered the rights, opportunities, accessibility, and full participation, of the Disabled, including them as equal members of Society, not second class citizens of State and Church.  We have come as Americans / Persons of Faith a long way in our outreach and inclusion of those with Special Needs, especially since the enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990; but there remains a far way to go for the Catholic Church in the United States to fully implement the U.S. Bishops 1978 Pastoral Statement on Persons With Disabilities, and the vision, leadership. and efforts, advanced by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, since 1982.  The effort to respond to the Disabled with Inclusion and Empowerment is now also being addressed by the International Community, vis a vis the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Moving forward I will be blogging much more about the efforts and the need for the U.N. Convention, and our mutual, unconditional, all inclusive, obligations civilly and morally, for the United States, Catholic-Christianity, and the World, to incorporate all facets of Accommodation for those with Special Needs in our communities and countries, without exception or delay.  The human right and dignity of every human being requires nothing less..............Father Troy David