Education for Learners with Disabilities as a Social Right
Dimitris Anastasiou * & Ilias Bantekas ** | 25.2 | Citation: Dimitris Anastasiou & Ilias Bantekas, Education for Learners with Disabilities as a Social Right, 25 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 365 (2023).
We locate the right to education in general international human rights law, addressing how the right to education in its disability-specific context has been considered an expression and continuation of the general right to education as enshrined in international human rights treaties. To do so, we set out to examine the fundamental ingredients of the right to education under the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and further developments. In addition, we discuss fundamental aspects of the right to education as a social right, focusing on learners with disabilities. First, we examine whether education is a public good and analyze its dimensions within and beyond economic theory. Second, we discuss education as part of the common good in moral and political philosophy. We consider that both the concepts mentioned above — implicitly or explicitly— are the critical sources for the foundations of the right to education as a social right. Third, we explore the scope of the right to education as a social human right in the 21st century. Finally, we discuss in what form education is a human right for learners with disabilities (right to education or right to inclusive education) and the implications of these two different conceptualizations.
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* Professor, School of Education; Southern Illinois University Carbondale
** Professor of Law, Hamad bin Khalifa University (Qatar Foundation) and Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown, University