Thank you very much.
My name is Eric Rosenthal. I'm the founder and executive director of Disability Rights International.
I thank you very much for your interest in advancing the cause of inclusive education for people with disabilities. I appreciate this privilege and opportunity to speak about what we at DRI have observed in 30 years of work, documenting and investigating the human rights of children and adults with disabilities.
I would like to bring the attention of this committee to the important link between the issue of inclusive education and the segregation of children from society in orphanages, boarding schools, institutions, social care homes, adult psychiatric facilities and many places where they are swept away unseen, experience terrible human rights conditions and do not have the opportunity for any form of education, much less inclusive education.
I have visited institutions in more than three dozen countries, including Mexico and countries in Central America, South America, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Vietnam. What we found is universal. These facilities are dangerous, and within them, not only do children generally not go to school at all; they receive essentially no education. If there is one call, it is that global, inclusive education must address the needs of children who are placed in these institutions. Even if education were provided, the dangers, the human rights violations, the emotional impact, the cognitive neglect and the impairments caused by the disability undermine any future opportunity or current ability to receive an education.
What we have unfortunately found is that international aid has very often overlooked this population and, indeed, contributed to the problems by investing international resources...very often moving from big institutions into smaller institutions, such as group homes. The international community and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have emphasized that inclusive education cannot happen in an institutional context, and that institutions both large and small, including what are called group homes, are essentially institutions. If we invest in those institutions, we are writing off the lives and the future potential of these children.
Our main recommendation is that institutionalization be placed on the agenda of the Global Education Program and that efforts be made to specifically target returning children to their families, which is the only place they will ever be able to be fully included in society and achieve an education.
The other important thing is, in breaking down the silos between the education community and, more broadly, between the children's community and the disability community, what we find is that reform is only possible when the constituents of those reforms—meaning children with disabilities, family members and organizations of people with disabilities—are engaged. In order to create an inclusive society in which education is a possibility, support for family organizations and disability-run organizations is essential. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes that participation as a fundamental right.
We have seen time and time again policies made by major international donors that sound great on paper, but when you go to the field, the reality is far different from what you see. Grants must be broken down. Support must be provided. There will be no effective participation of people with disabilities unless funding is set aside to support the participation of people with disabilities. Funding, capacity-building, training, inclusion, full participation and partnership are essential.
Please, we encourage you to partner at the local level and the national level with disability organizations to address combined efforts for both inclusive education and ending the very dangerous segregation of children from society to save them from a lifetime of abuse.
Thank you.