Inclusion and education

INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS AND 
DECLARATIONS HELP SHIFT INCLUSION 
TOWARDS A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH
International instruments and declarations introduced in 
the past 60 years have supported education as a right of 
children, adolescents and youth (especially members of 
disadvantaged groups) and as a means for individuals and 
society to attain other basic rights and freedoms.
A variety of instruments and declarations have 
shaped the debate
While the right to education was first expressed in the 
1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it was 
the 1960 UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in 
Education that specifically obliged countries to address 
explicit and implicit barriers in education. It was ratified 
by 25 of the 30 education systems in Central and 
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C E N T R A L A N D E A S T E R N E U R O P E , C A U C A S U S A N D C E N T R A L A S I A

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Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It defined 
discrimination as ‘any distinction, exclusion, limitation 
or preference which, being based on race, colour, sex, 
language, religion, political or other opinion, national 
or social origin, economic condition or birth’, results in 
individuals being treated unequally in education (Article 1).
The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 
(CRC), which all countries in the region signed, included 
two articles on the right to education. In addition, a 
separate article referred to education for children with 
disabilities, recognizing the ‘special needs of a disabled 
child’ and calling on ‘assistance … provided free of charge’ 
and ‘designed to ensure that the disabled child has 
effective access to and receives education … in a manner 
conducive to the child’s achieving the fullest possible 
social integration and individual development’ (Article 23) 
(United Nations, 1989). Turkey registered reservations 
on articles 17, 29 and 30 of the CRC, affecting access to 
information; minority groups’ right to share culture, 
language and religion; and education’s role in developing 
mind, body and talents and respect for others’ rights.
The 1990 World Declaration on Education for All, 
adopted in Jomtien, Thailand, called on countries to 
commit actively ‘to removing educational disparities’. 
‘Underserved groups: the poor; street and working 
children; rural and remote populations; nomads and 
migrant workers; indigenous peoples; ethnic, racial, 
and linguistic minorities; refugees; those displaced by 
war; and people under occupation, should not suffer 
any discrimination in access to learning opportunities’ 
(Article 3, §4). People with disabilities were not included 
in the list but were mentioned where the declaration 
called for steps to ‘provide equal access to education to 
every category of disabled persons as an integral part 
of the education system’ (Article 3, §5). The declaration 
thus distinguished between disabled persons and the 
underserved (UNESCO, 1990).
The Statement and Framework for Action of the 
1994 World Conference on Special Needs Education in 
Salamanca, Spain, further established the principle that 
‘schools should accommodate all children regardless of 
their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic 
or other conditions’ (Framework, p. 6) and urged states 
to ‘adopt as a matter of law or policy inclusive education’ 
(Statement, p. ix) . It recognized the need for schools to 
‘include everybody, celebrate differences, support learning, 
and respond to individual needs’ (Preface, p. iii) and helped 
shift the focus from learner to system, recognizing that 
schools would need to be restructured (UNESCO and Spain 
Ministry of Education and Science, 1994). The 2000 World 
Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, acknowledged that 
inclusive education emerged ‘in response to a growing 
consensus that all children have the right to a common 
education in their locality regardless of their background, 
attainment or disability’ (UNESCO, 2000, p. 18).
In 2006, the right to inclusive education was established 
in the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with 
Disabilities (CRPD), which has been ratified by 181 countries 
and signed by 9 others, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; 
8 have declined to sign. Article 24 specified that ‘States