Alert: Call-In Week Jan 6, 2014 to Senator Corker, Urge Him to Continue Negotiations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

as shared by United States International Council on Disabilities ...

Call-In Week to Senator Corker StartingJanuary 6th!  Right before Christmas, Senator Corker walked away from the negotiations on the Disability Treaty! As ranking Republican of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he is abdicating his leadership on this bipartisan issue.        Call Senator Corker throughout the week of January 6th! Let him know that YOU support the CRPD, and urge him to continue negotiations on the disability treaty!  You can contact Senator Corker at: 202-224-3344 or take action (and learn more) at  www.disabilitytreaty.org You can also join our Thunderclap asking Senator Corker to return to negotiationshere; we need your voice to spread this message! Forward this message on to your lists of friends and colleagues so they can join us in sending a message to Senator Corker that we are HERE and that our voice MATTERS!  In fact, Congressional Quarterlyvoted CRPD one of the 25 Most Important Things Congress Talked About, but Did Not Do in 2013!      ### Frist says Corker, Alexander wrong about disabilities treaty Former (Tennessee) U.S. Sen. Bill Frist said Monday that he disagrees with decisions by the state's current senators not to support a United Nations treaty on disability rights. Frist said U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander are wrong to oppose the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities because it will not conflict with United States law, including the 1990 Americans with Disability Act. Frist said the treaty is "non-self-executing," meaning it cannot create a legal cause of action or be the basis of a lawsuit. The treaty fell six votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification a year ago, but supporters have continued to push for its passage. "Voting no to this treaty is saying that we do not think the global community deserves an ADA of their own," Frist said. "U.S. leadership matters. We should be at the table." Corker has been seen as an especially influential vote because he is the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which held two hearings on the pact in November. But he and Alexander, a fellow Republican (also from Tennessee), said Friday they had not changed their minds about the treaty. The Tennessee Disability Coalition also reacted with disappointment on Monday. "We were shocked and saddened to learn than Senators Corker and Alexander have chosen to ignore the voices of Tennesseans with disabilities," said Carol Westlake, the group's executive director. "This is a betrayal of our community - of children and adults with disabilities, veterans, and the families that support them." ###