Law/8. Constitutional law
Institute of
Legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Some issues concerning
protection of the minors' rights in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
System of international protection of the minors'
rights has taken its shape as it is today within the framework of the United
Nations activities. In 1945 the legal platform for forming mechanisms of the
international human rights protection system was created by UN Charter. United
Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) created
in 1946 renders international support and technical assistance to the countries
in the matters relating to protection of children and their rights.
Currently the social status of children is lower than
that of adults. That is why international protection of the rights of the child
is aimed at providing those rights and opportunities equal to those of adults.
Besides, due to physical and mental immaturity the
children are in need of having special rights and additional protection.
In this regard, starting from the day on which UNO was
formed development of international protection of the rights of the child moved
forward to formulating international standards applicable to protection
of the rights of the child and creating specific authorities ñïåöèàëüíûé ìåõàíèçì therewith.
So, initially the child's rights were conferred in
such universal declarations and conventions on the human rights as Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of
1966 ãîäà, Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.
Further, the rights of the child were conferred in following international
agreements regulating the rights of certain social groups closely associated
with the child (rights of women, refugees), or in certain area of relations: '1954 Convention
Relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons, 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age
for Marriage and Registration of Marriages of 1962, ILO Convention concerning
the Prohibition and Immediate Action for
the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor dated 1999.
Hereafter the activity was conducted to develop such
declarations and conventions especially dedicated to regulate the child's
rights as Declaration of the Rights of the Child dated
1959, Convention on the
Rights of the Child dated 1989.
In 1991, within the framework of Convention on the Rights of the Child the
special mechanism supervising the compliance with provisions of the Convention
–Committee on the Rights of the Child authorized to consider reports submitted
by the countries to inform about the measures taken by them for implementation
of the Convention provisions was established. In addition, protection of
the children's rights in certain areas is also the subject to activity of such
specialized agencies of the UNO as International Labor Organization (ILO),
World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
On June 8, 1994, taking into consideration the
priority of universally recognized principles of international law, the
Republic of Kazakhstan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
thereby assumed the commitment to adjust the national legislation in accordance
with the convention.
In article 23 of this Convention it is enshrined that "children
with mental and physical disabilities shall have full and decent life in
conditions which assure their dignity, encourage their self-confidence and
facilitate their active participation in life of society, as well as the right
of disabled child for special care and, subject to availability of the
resources, the right for assistance aimed at providing the disabled child with
effective access to services in the sphere of education, professional training,
ìåäèöèíñêîãî îáñëóæèâàíèÿ, medical
treatment, health resumption, preparation for working career and access to
recreation means applying such way which leads to as full as possible
involvement of the child in social life and to achievement of the personal
enhancement including cultural and spiritual advancement of the child».
In
this regard the education performs as one of the most important human rights. Any person has a
right for education which shall meet his/her main educational needs in deepest
sense of this notion. Education shall provide him/her opportunity
to know how to apprehend, act and exist together with other people. This means
such education which strives for discovery of talents and capabilities of each
person, evolution and development of the personality so as every man may
enhance own life and reform the society.
Rule 6 of the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities provides: "States should recognize
the principle of equal primary, secondary and tertiary educational
opportunities for children, youth and adults with disabilities, in integrated
settings. They should ensure that the education of persons with disabilities is
an integral part of the educational system".
Further,
Dakar Framework of Actions contains the most exhaustive approach which will
allow providing education for everybody by 2015. On the other hand, the
Salamanca Statement on Principles, Policy and Practice in Special Needs
Education constitutes a head document for all those engaged in the sphere of
inclusion education committing to which is necessary for the countries hoping
to turn into reality all relevant ideas. It contains all main principles in the
part of inclusion, as well as proposals on the international standards
implementation in national legislation. It defines the education as
transformation required to support and discovery of peculiarity and potential
of each pupil. Its goal is not to allow
social discrimination based on differences in individual opportunities and
capabilities. Unfortunately, in present time these advanced ideas did not find
their universal application so far.
In the Republic of Kazakhstan
alongside with the post soviet republics the system of special educational
institutions for children with various abnormalities were established
stage-by-stage and in 90s the differentiated network of special schools and
pre-school institutions was completely built. It consisted of eight types of
such institutions for:
1)
deaf children;
2)
hearing-impaired children;
3)
blind children;
4)
vision-impaired children;
5)
mentally-retarded children;
6)
children with speech abnormality;
7)
children with developmental delay;
8)
children with musculoskeletal disorders.
As of the current date in our country the social model of state policy
which ensure the rights for education exercising by children with special needs
continues to be formed. Systematic development of the inclusion education
processes in Kazakhstan is reflected by adoption of the following regulatory
legal acts determining main principles of this education:
- Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Education dated July 27, 2007, ¹
319;
- Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On the
Rights of the Child in the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 8, 2002, ¹ 345;
- Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Social Support, Medical and Pedagogical Correction to Children with Disabilities dated 11 July 2002, ¹
343.
These
legislative acts contain modern international requirements and tendencies in
the sphere of special education.
They consider conditions for its further implementation enshrined in State
program of education development in the RK for 2011-2020 according to which the
inclusion education is established in the country stage-by-stage since 2011.
So, under Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On additions and amendments
to Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Education dated October 24, 2011, ¹
487-IV some changes concerning the issues of inclusion education were made. Law
of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Education itself which was adopted on July 27,
2007, was subject to additions and amendments 14 times since 2008. From 2011
the notion of 'inclusion education' under which one should understand
'cooperative education and training of persons with disabilities providing
access to relevant educational training programs equally with other categories
of trainees, corrective, pedagogical and social support of development by means
of special conditions provisions' were entered into article 1 by paragraph
21-3). Besides, in paragraph 7-4) of the same article it is confirmed that
special conditions for education are those conditions for education including
special educational programs and special training methods, technical and other
means, life activity environment, as well as medical, social and other services
without which it is impossible for the disabled persons to achieve mastery of
general education and vocational education programs.
Fundamentally inclusion approach is the
understanding and realizing the various not ordinary educational needs of the
children with disabilities, and providing them appropriate services via their
all-inclusive and full participation in the education process, as well as the
society attraction to solving these problems, elimination of segregation and
discrimination in education. Unfortunately, in current time not all children
are involved in educational environment. It is connected with such problems as:
- insufficient
development of regulatory and legal basis regulating the inclusion education;
- necessity in
training and professional development of the mass school teacher to prepare
them for working conditions in inclusive classes;
- gap of skilled
professionals of medical profile (physical therapy instructors, massage nurses,
physiotherapists and so on) and difficulty in their involvement in the
educational organizations;
- insufficient
financing in conformity to the school status.
- lack of knowledge
quality assessment of the disabled pupils attending inclusive classes.
- lack of additional
payments due to special labor conditions for teachers who work in inclusive
classes absence.
In this connection, according to State Program of Education Development
in the RK for 2011-2020 to develop inclusion education system by 2015 the
following will be evolved:
- module programs of
integrated learning of the children with disabilities;
- rules of the
disabled children mainstreaming in general education environment, forms of
integration for the children with various abnormalities are determined;
- rules for
organizing the remote tuition of the disabled children;
This
Program implementation will result in the following social and economic
effects:
- by 2020 in schools
the "barrier free zones" for disabled children will be created by
means of installing lifting devices, ramps, special tools in sanitary rooms,
handrails, special school-desks, tables and other special compensatory
facilities;
- in 3030 schools the
conditions will be created for equal access to education and training of the
children with disabilities (completing the school staff with special education
teachers, psychological
and pedagogical support of children, special
individual technical and compensatory facilities);
- disabled children
tutored at home will be provided with set of computer equipment and software
with taking into consideration their individual abilities and needs;
- with the purpose of
forming the personality competitive position in creative competence, continuous
education and training and professional identity the content of the children
additional education will be updated in the main directions: Artistic and Aesthetic,
scientific and technical, ecological and biological, tourism and regional
natural history, military and patriotic, social and pedagogical, educational
and health improving and others;
- program for
training the extended education teacher and related profession facilitators
will be improved;
- by 2015 the network
of extended education organizations will be expanded and achieve 625. This will
make possible to increase the children coverage by extended education up to 23
%.
- out-of-school forms
of physical training organization will be improved by means of creating sport
sections in the schools.
- children's
non-governmental organizations intended for formation of public and social
activity among the pupils will be developed via the system of competitions and
Olympiads in extended education with psychological and pedagogical support of
each trainee to prevent violation of the law and asocial incidents.
In our
view, realization of these objectives is impossible without solving such
critical social issue as formation of the inclusive culture which is expressed
in tolerant attitude to the persons with limited abilities. This problem may be
solved through development of wide spectrum of educational materials using
potential of the mass media, and, to our mind, inclusive culture formation
should be started from the pre-school institutions. With taking into
consideration the world experience in this field it is possible to create adaptive
environment for the children with special needs and implement further the
inclusion practice in our country.
Reference list:
1)
State Program of Education
Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020.
2)
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On
Education dated July 27, 2007, #319-III.
3) A.K. Rsaldinova
"Organization of activities aimed at continuing professional development
of teachers under the conditions of inclusion education establishment in the
Republic of Kazakhstan"// Materials of international conference
"Inclusion education: problems, search of ways to solve", Dushanbe, November 21, 2012
4) O.M. Starovoitov.
Mechanisms for protection of the right of the child" // Belarus magazine
of international law and international relations. 2001. ¹ 3.
5) R. A. Suleimenova "On
inclusion of the children with disabilities into the general education
process" // Materials of
international conference "Inclusion education: problems, search of ways to
solve", Dushanbe, November
21, 2012