I really appreciate what — said about the strength and weaknesses of international law. I think that I had a misconception that international law is all powerful, that what we have decided as an international community is all powerful, and it isn’t. She spoke that the international law is only as strong as we make it and as strong as the democratic nation behind the law, and implementing it.

I find it so weird to be here at this conference discussing the implementation of the CRPD in many countries, while the United States has yet to ratify it. It’s likely my bias of being from America but I see us as a world power, one that other countries will look up to for many different aspects of life. When it comes to disability services I’ve always thought that we had a strong foundation on which to build our services. Not that I’m saying our services are perfect in any sense, but that we are in a good position to improve. But if we haven’t ratified something, that other countries who look up to us have, then are we really advanced? I understand the reasoning behind not ratifying, but does not doing so limit our ability to participate in a conference like this? I haven’t heard anyone from the States bring up the CRPD. Is that something we should be embarrassed about at this conference or is the “justification” of our country enough reason?

I’m getting the sense of such a large frustration between advocacy and policy. I do not think I fully understood that there was such a large gap, or at least did not realize that was what I was learning about. Always day 1 went well and I’m excited for what the rest of the week has to offer.