UNA-USA Calls for Faster Action on Ratifying Treaties

The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) has called on the Senate and the Obama Administration to move quickly to ratify international agreements that safeguard peace, security, human rights and the environment.

Observing that the U.S. poor record on treaty ratification has increasingly isolated the country from the growing world wide codification of international norms and from our democratic allies in particular, the Association called for a concerted effort to review and accept the many outstanding treaties that serve America’s interest and values.

In May 2009 the Administration formally asked the Senate to ratify 17 treaties, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Almost a year later, not one of these treaties has been ratified or scheduled for a Senate vote.

“To protect and strengthen rule-based international order, and secure the cooperation abroad needed to solve global problems, America should support treaties” observed UNA-USA President A. Edward Elmendorf. “The President should continue to lead, and the Senate must rise to its responsibilities to grant its advice and consent.”

The Association statement accompanied its release of a report entitled “Renewing America’s Commitment to International Law” by Lawrence C. Moss, a member of the Association’s Task Force on Human Rights. The report stresses that American participation in international treaty regimes is essential to induce other nations to join in cooperative action on the great many global challenges America faces. Treaties on nuclear arms, international justice, human rights, biologic diversity, organic pollutants, climate change, and regulation of the oceans have been adopted by much of the world but have languished without ratification by the United States.

The report notes that trade treaties have been “fast-tracked” and adopted by majority votes with amendments and filibusters barred. It observes that human rights treaties have been unable to win a 2/3 majority in the Senate and suggests a similar “fast track” treatment for human rights treaties. To access the report, click here.

Comment: Let me add my support for rapid ratification of these treaties. If the United States wants to be credible on issues of human rights, we should be leaders in the ratification of human rights treaties.

Of course the problem is that we still have real domestic human rights problems. We enlist 17 year olds in the military, there are still states that impose the death penalty, and prostitution is still legal in Nevada. We are going to have to clean up our act if the federal government is going to be able to ratify all the human rights conventions. JAD