From Advocacy to Inaction: Paradoxes of the United States and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This Note utilizes an analytical lens to consider why the United States never ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Note first establishes the history of the CRPD and turns to the history of attempted ratification by the United States. By examining the legislative history of the Convention, as well as the U.S. engagement internationally leading up to and subsequent to the ratification attempts, this Note establishes a more nuanced understanding of the United States’ stance on the CRPD. Subsequently, by applying an analytical framework intended to identify manifestations of support for aspects of international law— in this case, disability rights norms—this Note identifies various causal reasons that the United States did not adopt the Convention.