15 - Inclusive Education

Summary

Contemporary debate on the right to education of persons with disabilities has led us to wonder what the core of the right to education is. We will examine this issue in light of the UN international legal framework for the promotion and protection of human rights during the 20th century. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has significantly contributed to the 21st century analysis by incorporating into the substance of the right to education the elements discussed below. It also provided operational guidelines for the application of the inclusive education model. Accordingly, at this stage the questions to be asked are: which substantive elements of the right to education of persons with disabilities has the CRPD Committee emphasised? Can we talk about the right to inclusive quality education? Are there prospects to accomplish a single education system, which eliminates distinctions between mainstream and segregated systems? What are the goals and tasks recommended by this Treaty Body to States Parties? A coordinated, systematised study of the jurisprudence by the CRPD Committee, a Treaty Body organ with monitoring duties, has provided us with abundant information for a reasoned analysis to reply to the questions above.