To the editor:

Recent letters to the editor have been critical of senators voting against the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Neither I, nor the senators who voted against the Convention, would argue against fair treatment of disabled persons.

However, our senators were right to reject this and other UN Conventions. These conventions are not resolutions, but they are treaties. Article VI of our Constitution makes such treaties made part of “the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

We do not need another layer of law and bureaucracy to address the needs of those with disabilities (or women or children in the case of other UN Conventions).

To the extent that current laws are insufficient, our Congress should work to strengthen American law for Americans, leading by example, not by subjecting ourselves to unelected UN bureaucrats and its well-intentioned but problematic Convention (see for example the statement the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, c-fam.org).