NAFUSA member Dick Thornburgh testified before the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate on July 12, 2012, in favor of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “as an important component of the worldwide effort to end discrimination and to promote the rights of as many as one billion men, women and children with disabilities around the world who seek vindication of their pre-eminent human rights in an ever-challenging world.”

Thornburgh served as attorney general of the United States under two presidents. He also served as the governor of Pennsylvania, 1979-1987, assistant attorney general for the criminal division, 1975-1977, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1969-1975, and under-secretary general of the United Nations, 1992-1993. He is currently counsel to K&L Gates in Washington.