Inclusive In Vietnam: Does the Government's Responsibility Go Far Enough to The Education Right for Children with Disability?

Abstract

Children with disabilities are people with double vulnerability, facing many obstacles in enjoying human rights, including education rights. Vietnam ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, then signed the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2007, and already ratified this Convention in November 2014, setting forth the responsibility to fulfill international commitments for ensuring the child's rights with disabilities. The article explores the state responsibility of Vietnam in implementing international commitments to ensure the right to inclusive education for children with disabilities by analyzing how the Vietnamese government respects, protects and fulfills this right. The article argues that, although there have been many efforts to incorporate international standards and norms on the education rights of children with disabilities, there are still gaps in policies and laws. In addition, accessing quality inclusive education, especially at higher education levels, remains a challenge for children with disabilities in Vietnam. The article finds that gaps in ensuring the right to inclusive education for children with disabilities will affect the realization of many other human rights, such as the right to participation, entertainment, employment, and so on. This situation requires the Vietnamese Government to make more significant efforts in fulfilling its state responsibility for the international human rights commitments that Vietnam is a member of.