 During the 1970s and 80s, persons with disabilities increasingly argued that they were treated as second-class citizens by law and society. They organized into a civil rights movement that pressed for legislation that would help secure for them the status of free and equal citizens. Protection against discrimination based on disability was written into the  Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,  The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities. The disability rights movement in the U.S. culminated with the passage of the  Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990  (ADA). The ADA has served as a model for legislation in countries such as Australia, India and Israel