Cross-cultural perspectives on human rights and inclusive education policies : the case of Cyprus

Abstract

The notions of human rights and inclusion are directly interlinked, as the recognition of disabled children’s human rights is a sine qua non element in the quest for the realisation of an inclusive discourse. Their interconnectedness also pertains to their elusive and contentious nature in an era of increased globalisation. In order to clarify and reinstate the ‘conceptual misappropriation’ of inclusion, it is important to acquire a cross cultural understanding of inclusion and the ways that it is interlinked with the notion of human rights within the wider context of a cultural, historical and socio-political system. Taking as a case study the island of Cyprus in the emergence of the 21st century, the attempt is to explicate this interconnectedness and lay bare the ways that the linguistic and pragmatic misappropriation of inclusion is both the result and the consequence of the inability to establish a human rights discourse within the wider socio-political context of a nation state.