THE RIGHT AND JUST IMPERATIVE FOR THE RATIFICATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE DISABLED..............

The Rights of the Disabled in our society is much more than a momentary trend, it is steeped in a four decade plus effort on the part of caring, conscientious, and committed, citizens of the United States and the World, to giving persons with Special Needs the equal opportunity for full accessibility and inclusiveness in all facets of life, without limitations and discrimination.  The 2006 United Nations Convention on Persons With Disabilities is but one of the most recent efforts to assure the Human Rights of those with Special Needs are treated fairly, justly, and equally, by all, without exception or excuse.  It is rooted in the 1975 U.N. Declaration on the Disabled; and reflects the commitment ingrained in law, by the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act,  It also furthers the prophetic 1978 Statement of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Ministry to Persons With Disabilities.  It is imperative that the U.N. Convention be adopted by the Nations of the World to further the effectiveness of the explicit challenge to every individual and institution globally, to eradicate all vestiges of ignorance, insensitivity, prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion, in responsiveness, accessibility, inclusion, and empowerment of Disabled Persons with Special Needs.  This includes both the Federal Government and the Catholic Church in the United States both which have committed themselves to an appreciable degree but with the need to move forward in furthering the full human rights of the Disabled.  The U.S. States Senate needs to ratify the U,N. Convention, and the Catholic Church needs to extend and verify the true reality of Ministry to and with Persons With Disabilities by proceeding to equalize the opportunity and inclusion of those of us who have Special Needs and who possess a Human and Baptismal Right to full, active, and conscious, participation in the life of our Church and the Christian Faith..............Fr. Troy David