The defeat last week of the UN disabilities treaty was a win for sovereignty, made possible in no small part by the work of Heritage Foundation expert Steve Groves and our sister organization, Heritage Action for America.

The disabilities treaty, known formally as Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is essentially a replica of a law already existence in the U.S. Ratifying this treaty and subjecting our sovereignty to international bureaucrats would therefore have been pointless, Groves explains: Continue Reading »

The Senate could vote this week on a new United Nations treaty intended to protect people with disabilities.

But in testimony earlier this year before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Heritage Foundation expert Steve Groves argued that ratifying the treaty is both harmful to American sovereignty and unnecessary to protect the rights of the disabled.

Groves, who works in Heritage’s Thatcher Center, pointed out that a vast array of federal, state and local laws already protects people with disabilities. Ratifying the treaty would only make American laws subject to review by international bureaucrats who aren’t looking out for our nation’s interests.

An excerpt from his testimony: Continue Reading »

Thirty-four Senators have signed a letter pledging to oppose the costly United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which would erode American sovereignty. This effectively ends the treaty’s chances for ratification in 2012, since under the Constitution, treaties must be approved by two thirds of Senators.

“The American people have responded to the educational efforts of Heritage and other institutions concerned about America’s interests in the world and have made clear that the U.S. Senate should not approve LOST,” Heritage Foundation senior vice president David Addington writes. He has more:

The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America have fought steadily for American sovereignty and American naval and maritime rights and against taxation of Americans by international organizations and giveaways of America’s resources to foreign countries.

Heritage Foundation expert Steven Groves has spent years pointing out the dangers of the agreement, commonly known as the Law of the Sea Treaty. Continue Reading »

Heritage Foundation expert Steven Groves testified last week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (link in PDF) at hearings about ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty.

Also testifying on the panel were former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and former Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

Watch a video of Groves’ testimony below, starting at minute 61, and be sure to watch his discussion with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) at minute 67:

Is John Kerry right that we need to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty?

Advocates of the misguided Law of the Sea Treaty hope to ram the treaty through in the lame-duck session after the election, Heritage Foundation expert Brian Darling writes.

Hearings held today on treaty ratification “are a pretext for a lame duck strategy to railroad the treaty through the Senate after the November election.”

Heritage scholar Steve Groves plans to testify Thursday at Senate hearings on the treaty and explain why it would undermine American sovereignty and security.

Do you think the Senate will be able to pass the legislation in a lame duck session?

Steven Groves

Heritage Foundation scholar Steven Groves is renowned on Capitol Hill as an expert on the weaknesses of the Law of the Sea treaty. But don’t take our word for it.

Foreign Policy reports:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a staunch foe of ratification, told The Cable today that Kerry has promised him another SFRC hearing for “those of us who are opposed,” and said he wanted former Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and the Heritage Foundation’s Steve Groves to testify.

Groves, Heritage’s Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow, has made the case for years that ratifying the treaty, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, would abrogate American sovereignty and limit our military.

James Phillips

James Carafano

Today at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on “FOXNews.com Live”, Heritage foreign policy experts Jim Carafano and Jim Phillips will discuss the situation in Egypt and the broader Middle East.

Update:

At 4:00 p.m. on al-Hurra, an American public diplomacy television network for the Middle East, Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow Steven Groves will offer his thoughts on Egypt.

Then at 6:00 p.m. on FOX News’ “Special Report,” Heritage’s Nile Gardiner will discuss British prime minister David Cameron’s speech on multiculturalism.

What Did Presidents Obama and Medvedev agree to when negotiating the New START treaty? Photo: White House

Yesterday, 66 Senators agreed to move towards a vote on the New START agreement with Russia. Now, one could argue that ratification is in the bag at this point. But Heritage’s Conn Carroll points out that there two major questions remain unanswered: where are the negotiating documents and when will we be allowed to see them?

These documents are crucial to our understanding of the treaty. And our leaders are actually considering  ratifying  the Treaty without them? This is irresponsible, Carroll argues. We need to know what concessions were made to the Russians and why.

All along, the White House has claimed that New START will not limit our ability to defend against ballistic missile attack. Then why did Russians insist on inserting language limiting our missile defenses?

These are questions we need answers to. After all, as Heritage foreign policy expert Steven Groves notes, “American foreign policy must ultimately be controlled by the American people.” This is how the Founding Fathers intended it, and how it is written into our Constitution.

As it stands, Carroll explains, the New START Treaty is one “no true conservative could support.”