Diane Richler

Diane Richler chairs Inclusion International’s Catalyst for Inclusive Education. She is former chair of the International Disability Alliance and past president of Inclusion International and was Director of the Roeher Institute and Executive VicePresident of the Canadian Association for Community Living. She is co-chair of the GLAD network Inclusive Education Working Group and was a member of the expert group reviewing the draft 2020 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM). 

Diane played a leadership role in Canadian and international strategies to promote inclusive education. She was one of the civil society leaders in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and was actively involved in the development of the CRPD Committee General Comment 4 on inclusive education. She was an Erasmus Mundus Visiting Academic of the European Union in inclusive education. 

She is a Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation International Fellow, member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manuel Guerrero of Panama. She has been an invited speaker and consultant to governments and multi-lateral agencies in over 50 countries.

Email: dianer@cacl.ca

Projects and Publications

• Richler, D. “Inclusive Education: Inertia or Tipping Point? https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/including-children-disabilities-educationinertia-or-tipping-point,GPE blog, 2017 

• Richler, D., MacQuarrie, A., Laurin-Bowie, C. “Hidden and Invisible: Children with Intellectual Disabilities Deprived of Liberty” in Protecting Children Against Torture in Detention: Reflections on the Special Rapporteur on Torture's 2015 Thematic Report, Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian law, American University Washington College of Law, 2017 

• Richler, D., “Systemic Barriers to Inclusion”, (2012) in Boyle, Chris and Topping, Keith, What Works in Inclusion, Open University Press: Berkshire, England.