Speaker: Here in the States, there are laws, of course, that protect the disabled. And now the United Nations is trying to pass an initiative that would offer the same protections around the globe. But not everyone is on board. Should the U.N. set worldwide standards, or should each country make its own laws? David Lee Miller reports. You decide.

Mr. Miller: Lex Frieden has been in a wheelchair since he was injured in a car accident. Like millions of other disabled people, his civil rights are protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990.

President Bush: The quest for civil rights is a quest for individual rights and equal opportunity.

Mr. Miller: It was the world's first comprehensive legislation for the disabled. Frieden, head of the National Council on Disability, now wants this same protection for people in all countries.

Mr. Frieden: People with disabilities in many countries are disenfranchised. They are the poorest of the poor.

Mr. Miller: Frieden wants the United States to sign on to a U.N. initiative that would set global standards for the rights of the disabled. But the U.S. government is leery of the effort, saying each country should enact its own laws. Historically, the United States has shunned U.N. conventions, saying the ends, however laudable, tend to get bogged down by the demands of special interests. Heritage Foundation analyst Nile Gardner agrees.

Mr. Gardner: I think that, basically, we're looking at yet another United Nations bureaucracy, an institution which is designed to take away national sovereignty to interfere in individual countries' affairs.

Mr. Miller: Ecuador's Ambassador to the U.N. has been charged with leading the effort to create the convention.

Ecuador's Ambassador to the U.N.: It's important that the United States and every country in the world participate. In the long run, this is also the relevance of the United Nations. This convention will guide the aspects of nondiscrimination against the disabled in the future generations.

Mr. Miller: In the wake of U.N. squabbling over the war in Iraq, winning U.S. support for a U.N. agreement on the disabled is, at best, unlikely. U.S. laws in this area broke new ground, and officials now say there is no reason to allow the United Nations to set our standards. At the U.N., David Lee Miller, Fox News.