The Right to Education of Autistic Children

Lucie Ducarre's thesis endeavours to analyse the right to education that autistic children benefit from in international and European law through a neurodiverse and rights-based perspective. The right to education is widely protected in human rights law and is recognised as key to allow right-holders to enjoy all their human rights and freedoms. However, even in relatively wealthy and developed regions like Europe, some populations still struggle to enjoy this right. It is notably the case of autistic children, whose educational experience and outcomes are consistently reported as especially poor.

The present thesis posits that, in addition to problems at the implementation level, this situation partly stems from issues in the interpretation given to the right to education. Following the line of other critical or transformative movements, like legal feminism, the thesis contends that the right to education, and especially the notions of quality education and inclusive education, have so far largely been interpreted in a neurocentric manner and in isolation from other core human rights. This in turn undermines their relevance to neurodivergent populations, and among them autistic children. Consequently, the thesis undertakes to analyse the right to education through a neurodiverse and rights-based perspective. In particular, it focuses on developing interpretations of the core notions of quality education and inclusive education which would respect autistic children’s neurodiversity and be anchored in the wider children’s rights environment.

The thesis centres its analysis on the following international and European treaties and their corresponding human rights bodies: the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2006); the European Convention of Human Rights (Council of Europe, 1950) and its Protocols; and the revised European Social Charter (Council of Europe, 1996).

In addition to the present summary (i.e., kappe), the thesis consists in four articles. The first article reviews autistic children lived educational experience to inform ongoing legal and conceptual debates about their right to education. The second article focuses on the notion of quality education, and more especially on the individual and identity aims of education, and what they entail in the case of autistic children. The third and fourth articles are dedicated to critically analyse and develop a neurodiverse and rights-based interpretation of the notion of inclusive education. The thesis concludes that, to adopt a neurodiverse and rights-based interpretation of the notions of quality and inclusive education will require providing autistic children with diverse educational options and settings respectful of their specific functioning, identity, and rights, and directed to their holistic development and inclusion.

The full thesis is available open acess in Bergen Open Research Archive: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3157357