Performing/Informing Rights: Combining Dance and Rights Education to Advance Disability Inclusion

Despite the protections of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the promise of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal to “leave no one behind,” disabled people continue to face ongoing discrimination and exclusion in accessing social protection schemes. Disabled people can use domestic Right to Information (RTI) laws and processes to improve access to social protection – but only if they are both informed about and empowered to use RTI for that purpose. Our research (2016-23) has explored how combining inclusive dance (where disabled and non-disabled people dance together) with human rights education (including RTI education) might lead to greater psycho-social and legal empowerment for disabled people in post-war Sri Lanka and Nepal. Our findings show that this approach can lead to increased rights knowledge and rights claiming by some disabled people.