The Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion

A Flagship under the Education for All Programme

Date: 

[ARCHIVE]

Material from the Flagship meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The sectariat organized a flagship workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (6-8 December, 2006). Here we publish papers, comments, and interviews (under preparation).

Workshop agenda

Ms. Jill Van den Brule and Ms. Mari Koistinen: The flagship and global level linkages for EFA (presentation slides)

Ms. Philippa Lei (World Vision UK) and Ms. Hazel Bines (Consultant): Ethiopia and the Fast Track Initiative disability study (presentation slides)

Ms. Kirsti Aarnio (Ambassadress of Finland to Ethiopia): Closing statement paper

Ms. Lakech Hailemariam (Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association): A Study on gender and disability: The Ethiopian experiance on ensuring the right to education for women and girls with disabilities

VIDEOS

Workshop clips:
- Kenneth Eklind: Closing words (duration 4:59, 1 159KB)
- Matti Kuorelahti: Closing words (duration 5:49, 1 172KB)

Comments/Interviews:
- Equity issues in Ethiopia (duration 3:14, 2 382KB)
- Tirussew Teferra: Inclusive education in Ethiopia (duration 6:10, 8 305KB)
- Elina Lehtomäki: Support to education in Ethiopia (duration 21:23, 19 248KB)

Submitted articles

Malakpa, Sakui, W.G. 2006 (Sep). The African association for special education and rehabilitation services (AASERS): A proposal.

UNESCO Policy briefs:

Inclusion 1/2006 (pdf 2.8M)

EFA Disability Flagship holds teacher training workshop in Ethiopia

The EFA Flagship on the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities is arranging a workshop on teacher training for inclusion. The workshop, taking place 6-8 December in Addis Ababa, brings together over 150 individuals, from ministries of several East African countries, international organizations, numerous local NGOs and teacher training colleges, as well as leading academics in the field of teacher training and inclusive education.

The purpose of the workshop is to share experiences of inclusive education practices in Ethiopia and some countries in East Africa. This will be achieved through raised awareness, shared innovative approaches, identification of barriers and recommendations, as well as networking and strategies for the implementation of EFA.

On 8 December the workshop participants will join an OECD/World Bank conference on “Ethiopia Disability Screening Pilot – Findings and Scale-Plans”. This conference address the issues of data collection, and will try to harness experience from gathering data to identify, for service planning purposes, the extent of the problem of out-of-school children with disabilities.

The UNESCO Paris serves as the joint secretariat of the Flagship, together with the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the Finnish Disabled People's International Development Association (FIDIDA). The workshop is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and active in the organization of the workshop in Ethiopia is also the UNESCO office in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education with the participation of the national TTISSA coordinator for UNESCO.

Contact: ie@unesco.org

Related links:

The EFA Flagship on the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion http://www.inclusionflagship.net/index2.shtml

UNESCO’s Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA)
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=44238&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html"

UNESCO participates in adoption of first human rights treaty of the 21st century

29 August 2006 – After five years of negotiations, agreement has been reached on a new treaty to protect the rights of persons with disabilities. UNESCO, through its EFA Flagship on “the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion” has been involved in the negotiation process in particular with regard to Article 24 on Education.

“This is the first convention of this magnitude for this century,” UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said following the agreement that was reached late Friday. He indicated that participants were sending the message to the world “that we want to have a life with dignity for all and that all human beings are all equal” and reminded them that “the measure of a society is in how it treats its most vulnerable citizens.”

The successful completion of the treaty, after days of intense negotiations and compromises that capped years of effort, was met with applause by well over a hundred government delegations, representatives from UN agencies and hundreds of representatives of disability organizations who participated in the process of crafting the 40-article pact.

“This marks a great day for the UN and for persons with disabilities,” said New Zealand's Ambassador Don MacKay, who chaired the talks through its final sessions. “It's a good convention and it will make a difference for millions of people.”

Supporters of the convention expressed that the treaty was necessary because persons with disabilities represented one of the most marginalized groups and that their rights had been routinely ignored or denied throughout much of the world. A representative from UNESCO indicated that “this will be an important tool for reinforcing UNESCO’s work in EFA and ensuring inclusive education systems throughout the world”.

While the convention does not create new rights, it specifically prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in all areas of life, including civil rights, access to justice and the right to education, health services and access to transportation.

The Secretary-General indicated that the new treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities, to be adopted by the UN General Assembly during its coming session in September, is a historic achievement for the 650 million people with disabilities around the world. He notes that people with disabilities have hitherto lacked adequate protection, and hopes that this long overdue Convention will mark the beginning of a new era in which they will have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. He urges all Member States to ratify the Convention and ensure its rapid implementation.

It is estimated that 10 per cent of the world's population, or about 650 million people, suffer from disabilities.

The contents of this web-site were developed under a support from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) for the Flagship initiative "The right to  education for persons with disabilities: Towards inclusion" of UNESCO advancing the Education For All programme. The contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the UNESCO, MFA, University of Jyväskylä, and FIDIDA, and you should not assume endorsements.

© Flagship Secretariat
"The right to education for persons with disabilities: Towards inclusion"
(Edited 21 April 2008)