RESOLUTION #2007-01
San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council Resolution
In Support of the Historic United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

WHEREAS, thirty years ago this month, in April 1977, San Francisco was the site of 150 people with disabilities and their allies occupying offices of the Federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare for 26 days resulting in the signing of regulations to implement Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which became the model for the Americans with Disabilities Act, and reaffirmed the Bay Area as the birthplace of the modern disability civil rights movement; and

WHEREAS, seventeen years ago in July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act extended the non-discrimination protections in Section 504 (which applied only to entities receiving Federal funding) to private employers and public accommodations; and

WHEREAS, in December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which currently awaits ratification by at least 20 signatory nations to become International Law; and

WHEREAS the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was the fastest negotiated international human rights treaty in history and is the first UN treaty to comprehensively articulate basic human rights of persons with disabilities and outline specific actions necessary in order to guarantee these basic rights in nations that ratify it; and

WHEREAS, in a departure from the United States' historic role as an international leader in disability and human rights, President George W. Bush has indicated that he will not sign this landmark human rights treaty, which may in turn discourage other countries from signing it;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council urges Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to formally request that President George W. Bush allow the United States to join the group of nations which ratify and agree to be bound by the Convention, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor's Disability Council urges the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to officially adopt and be bound by the rights guaranteed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities within the City and County of San Francisco; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor's Disability Council directs the Mayor's Office on Disability to assist other local governments to similarly protect the rights of their residents with disabilities by placing key documents that offer technical assistance, such as San Francisco's ADA grievance procedure, on the MOD website; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor's Disability Council and the Mayor's Office on Disability shall consider providing detailed technical assistance upon request to San Francisco's 15 official "Sister Cities" around the globe, and shall advise such cities that this assistance is available.

April 20, 2007

Mayor's Disability Council - ADOPTED

Ayes: 10 - Jack Fagan, Jul Lynn Parsons,
Norma Block, Denise Senhaux,
Richard Ow, Tatiana Kostanian,
Amy Wishnie, F. Ross Woodall,
Sarah Estes Merrell and
Raphaella Bennin.

Nay: 0

Excused
Absent: Elizabeth Grigsby