Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Remember Justina Pelletier’s predicament? Taken into “custody” more or less by doctors who changed her own physician’s diagnosis of a health concern, threw her parents to the wind, and said they – and only they – would be determining her treatment and future.

All in the name of what was in the “best interest” of Justina Pelletier.

It was nearly two years and many court hearings before she was free to return to her home and get the medical help that she and her parents found she really needed.

That, according to an organization that is opposing the move, is what would result more and more often should the U.S. Senate adopt the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee did vote on Tuesday to approve it, 12-6. But two years ago in the full Senate, the treaty failed, and its critics are working overtime now to persuade senators that the plan is full of opportunities for Americans’ rights to be diminished.

After the vote, committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the U.S. needs to lead in raising “worldwide accessibility.”

He said, “The Disabilities Treaty is essential to improving the lives of over 1 billion people around the globe with disabilities, as well as the 58 million Americans with disabilities right here at home, including 5.5 million disabled American veterans.”

But while it has been signed by 146 countries, the U.S. is not one, and advocates for its defeat say there’s good reason to keep it that way.

The Home School Legal Defense Association has been fighting it since it appeared over the impact on parental rights and children that it could allow.

“The scope of the treaty is indefinite, because the treaty provides no definition of ‘disabilities,’ saying only that it is ‘an evolving concept,’” HSLDA said. “The CRPD requires each nation that adopts it to guarantee that it will provide political, civil, social, educational, and cultural rights for persons with disabilities.

“This requires the adopting nation to spend money sufficient to accomplish these purposes and requires regular reporting to the United Nations to ensure that sufficient funds are being expended and to ensure that the other legal requirements are being met.”

Homeschooling and parental rights are endangered, the group explains, because “it would override existing state laws, seriously damaging state’s rights. It would surrender our nation’s sovereignty to unelected U.N. bureaucrats. And it is unnecessary because of the strong protections for people with disabilities provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act and other U.S. laws.”

HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris long has urged members of the group to contact their senators and ask them to oppose the treaty. He is doing the same again, and the effort has made him a target for treaty supporters.

Politico reported this week on Sen. Bob Dole and his fight for the treaty, and against Farris.

“Dole, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, more than 700 disabilities, veterans and business groups and a bipartisan group of senators are pushing for the treaty …” the report said. “They know they’ve built a much bigger, more expansive coalition than Farris and his allies – but they don’t underestimate Farris’ devoted base and the sway homeschool and pro-life groups have with many Senate Republicans.”

The portrayal of the HSLDA as a heavyweight is amusing, suggested Will Estrada, a liaison and spokesman for the organization.

But the bottom line is serious.

“Remember Justina Pelletier?” he told WND. “That’s what happens when the ‘best interests’ of the child are used.”

He said such cases in the U.S. fortunately are isolated, but if the treaty is adopted, it would be standard practice.

WND columnist Matt Barber took up the case of Pelletier after WND has reported on her situation multiple times.

“It’s a sordid tale of governmental tyranny, child imprisonment and endangerment, harmful and unethical medical experimentation, as well as a number of gross conflicts of interest,” he write. “This is the story of a child, Justina Pelletier, who faced 16 long months of child abuse and incarceration at the hands of both Massachusetts government officials and callous medical personnel at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“Thankfully, due to the actions of Liberty Counsel, a Christian civil rights law firm, powerful media voices like Glenn Beck and tens of thousands of outraged and outspoken Americans, 16 year-old Justina is now home,” he said just weeks ago.

He said even Congress is getting to work on a solution, with a plan that would prevent such cases from recurring.

The HSLDA said the treaty simply would make U.S. laws “conform to U.N. mandates” and the U.S. already “is the world leader in protecting the rights of those with disabilities.”

The key problem, HSDLA said, is the treaty phrase, “In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

That means United Nations officials could override parental decisions about a child with a disability, under virtually any circumstances. And enforce their decision through the law.

“Other provisions of the UNCRPD threaten U.S. sovereignty and our fundamental right to govern ourselves. The treaty also promotes abortions and requires a national registry of all children with disabilities …” the report said. “Some Senate staff may argue that the UNCRPD isn’t dangerous because it can be amended with reservations, understandings, and declarations (‘RUDs).”

But at the vote on Tuesday, Democrat senators declined to allow such amendments to be discussed.

“The UNCRPD itself says in Article 46 ‘Reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the present Convention shall not be permitted.’ Who decides whether RUDs are compatible? The U.N.? Some international law experts have even argued that any RUDs that alter a treaty are invalid. If the UNCRPD is ratified, we could see a case make its way before the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether RUDs are even valid. We cannot trust our freedom to five justices on the Supreme Court making the right ruling. In addition, a future Senate could withdraw RUDs,” the HSLDA report said.

Estrada said the word in the Senate was there are not enough senators, right now, in support of the measure to adopt it.

But he said it could be that political maneuvering would have it up for a vote during a lame-duck session when outgoing senators have little reason to fear a voter backlash.

His advice was to expect just about anything.

“They’re desperate to get it through,” he told WND.