By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/usun1disabwonder120309.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- Flanked by Stevie Wonder, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice held a press conference on Thursday about disability rights. Inner City Press asked about criticism of the policy of the Obama Administration, particularly its Justice Department, in favor of institutionalization of the disabled rather than their right to live in the community. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the topic, Inner City Press pointed out, guarantees the right to community living.
Ambassador Rice responded that with the U.S. now moving to ratify the UN Convention, the Administration is reviewing it to "see how it dovetails with domestic law and policy [and that] we are in compliance with its provisions and purpose." Video here, from Minute 22:15.
Charity begins, or should begin, at home. The U.S. Supreme Court in its 1999 decision in Tommy Olmstead v Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson ruled that unnecessarily segregating an individual into an institution when community support exists is a violation of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II.
The regulations covering Title II of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12131, and its implementing regulations at 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(d) contain what is called “the integration mandate,” requiring states to provide community-based services for persons with disabilities who are otherwise entitled to institutional services.
But, advocates document, the current Department of Justice's settlements under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) show a failure by DOJ to work to move people into the community. For more, click here.
Stevie Wonder, after Ambassador Rice, said that while he "respects mainstreaming," he went to a state Mission School for the Blind, where with other blind people he learned what he had to deal with, and about track and even bowling. He demonstrated and to some degree promoted his i-Phone, and will appear this Sunday on CNN's program Amanpour.
Ambassador Rice, meanwhile, had appeared this week on shows ranging from "Shep" on Fox News to Rachel Maddow, who asked why the U.S. is not more focused on Somalia. Click here for Inner City Press' story at and on Thursday's Somalia proceedings in the Security Council.
