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Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Constitutional Protections for Individuals with DisabilitiesThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center analyzed national constitutional text in force as of May 2017.

The Constitutions database includes analyses of constitutions from all UN member states.

We only referred to additional legislation when it was explicitly referenced in the constitution.

Although the vast majority of countries have written constitutions in place, a few countries (e.g. the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Israel) either have no written constitutions or have a series of laws that function similarly to a constitution, rather than a single text. In these cases, our data was collected from documents or laws that are considered to be constitutional in nature either by the country itself or by the legal community.

Why consider constitutions? Governments establish human rights through national and sub-national legislation, targeted programs and policies, and national constitutions. Among these tools, constitutions fulfill several unique and important functions:

Constitutions are fundamental building blocks of a nation’s government and laws. As such, they can play an important role in establishing values and rights.

Constitutions are particularly difficult to repeal or amend. Their commitments remain relatively stable and permanent even as different political parties assume power.

Constitutions are typically the highest laws of a country and so can be used to shape legislation and policies.

Constitutions often contain mechanisms for the legal enforcement of citizens’ rights. In countries around the world, such provisions have been used successfully to combat discrimination and hold governments accountable to their commitments.

Constitutions often outline broad rights that require complementary legislation or policies to be fully effective. For example, legislation that guarantees free secondary school helps realize the constitutional right to education. Nevertheless, constitutions’ critical role in formally establishing countries’ fundamental values makes them an important unit of analysis on their own.

Non-Discrimination and Inclusion for Students with DisabilitiesThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original legislation and statutory protections extended to public education in education acts, child protection legislation, and anti-discrimination legislation as of June 2018 for all 193 UN member states. Original legislative texts were identified primarily using the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Observatory on the Right to Education and the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s NATLEX database.Data analyses focused on national-level laws and policies collected by the UN and other global organizations. For countries that legislate educational provisions at the sub-national level (and have no relevant federal law in place), we coded based on the lowest level of protection set at the state or provincial level, utilizing university-based legal compendiums and government websites as necessary.Finally, this systematic review included legislative guarantees to non-discrimination that were both specific to public education, and broadly extended to the public sector. In some countries like Canada, case law has applied less explicit guarantees to education (i.e. guarantees to non-discrimination in “the provision of goods, services, facilities, or accommodations customarily available to the general public”); while acknowledging that this is an important step forward, our coding frameworks only capture exactly what is written in legislation.Preventing Workplace Discrimination and Guaranteeing Reasonable AccommodationThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original legislation and statutory protections extended to the private sector in labor codes, anti-discrimination legislation, equal opportunity legislation, and penal codes as of May 2018. Original, full-text, national-level legislation for all 193 United Nations member states was identified primarily using the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database.Initial data analysis has focused on national-level law and policy collected by the UN and other global organizations. For countries that legislate at the sub-national level and have no federal policy in place, we coded based on the lowest level of protection set at the state or provincial level. This review and analysis does not include legislative protections from discrimination that are not specific to the workplace (such as protections which may apply to public spaces or educational institutions).For details on the variables included in this category, please see WORLD global maps on Labor.Family Income SupportThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center analyzed data from relevant legislation and details of social security systems drawn from the following sources as of March 2012:

Legislative texts accessed via the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database and official government gazettes;

The Social Security Programs Throughout the World database (SSPTW);

The ILO’s TRAVAIL Database of Conditions of Work and Employment Laws;

The European Union’s Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC); and

The Mutual Information System on Social Protection of the Council of Europe (MISSCEO).

If the sources mentioned above did not have recent data on minimum-wage rates, information was drawn from the U.S. Department of State’s Human Rights Reports.All data about minimum wage policies were based on information relevant to the years 2010 and 2011.Only disability benefits provided on a statutory basis—that is, established by law—are captured; because data sources offer very limited detail on non-statutory programs (and by definition there are no legislative documents that detail them), these were not included.For details on the variables included in this category, please see WORLD global maps on Disability.For more information about WORLD’s approach to building globally comparative databases on policies affecting human health, development, well-being, and equity, please visit our Methodology page.