Obama to Sign International Disabilities Rights Treaty

From the AP article:

Obama said he had instructed U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to sign the document next week, joining 140 other nations.

"It's the first new human rights convention of the 21st century," Obama said at the White House during an East Room celebration of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

The law protects people with mental or physical disabilities from discrimination in employment, education, housing, public transportation and other areas of life.

"This extraordinary treaty calls on all nations to guarantee rights likes those afforded under the ADA," Obama said. "It urges equal protection and equal benefit before the law for all citizens. It reaffirms the inherent dignity and worth and independence of all persons with disabilities worldwide."

You can read the UN treaty ("The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities") here.