Inclusive education as a legal right in practice: equality adjudication and disability-based discrimination in Türkiye

Abstract

Inclusive education is widely recognized as a fundamental human right under international law, yet persistent gaps remain between legal commitments and everyday educational practice. This article examines how the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (TİHEK) adjudicates disability-based discrimination in education through a qualitative analysis of 61 published decisions issued between 2018 and 2025. The analysis focuses on complaints involving school admission, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), reasonable accommodation, accessibility, and dignity-related harms. The findings reveal a mixed adjudicatory pattern. While TİHEK has recognized disability-based discrimination in a number of cases, a larger proportion of decisions concluded with findings of no violation or were closed on procedural grounds. The analysis identifies a dual interpretive trajectory in TİHEK’s jurisprudence. In some decisions, the Institution adopts a rights-based approach aligned with the CRPD, recognizing exclusion and inaccessibility as forms of discrimination. In others, however, it defers to procedural compliance, institutional discretion, and narrow interpretations of equality. These patterns contribute to the under-recognition of indirect discrimination and blur the distinction between reasonable accommodation and segregated alternatives. The findings highlight the importance of CRPD-aligned adjudicatory reasoning to ensure that inclusive education operates as a lived right rather than a conditional policy aspiration.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2026 · DOI ↗