A/HRC/4/29 page 5 6. The remaining structure of the report reflects this focus and is divided into seven sections. Section one introduces the concept of inclusive education as the main characteristic of the right to education for persons with disabilities. Section two briefly considers the applicable normative framework to inclusive education from the perspective of both treaty law and programmatic declarations. Section three identifies and considers specific treaty obligations and responsibilities of States (and indeed other actors) pertinent to the right to education of persons with disabilities, and introduces - but only as an outline - the minimum requirements of legislative, policy and financial frameworks needed to fulfil these obligations. Section four examines the main challenges to inclusive education, followed by section five, which briefly reviews the main bodies that have a role to play in monitoring the fulfilment of the right. It also introduces the importance of the prompt development and agreement on the right to education indicators and benchmarks. Section six sums up responses to a questionnaire sent out by the Special Rapporteur to Governments and civil society organizations. These responses are noted with gratitude at this point as they actively informed the entire report. Concluding observations and recommendations form section 7. I. THE RIGHT TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 7. That persons with disabilities, of both genders and all ages, have a right to education cannot now be disputed. Unfortunately, neither can it now be disputed that persons with disabilities, of both genders and all ages and in most parts of the world, suffer from a pervasive and disproportionate denial of this right. The impact of a denial of education, generally at all ages and in all spheres of life, has been powerfully demonstrated in previous reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education. As the estimate of persons with disabilities is between 500 and 600 million persons (of which 120 to 150 million are children, 80 to 90 per cent of whom live in poverty in developing countries) and some 15 to 20 per cent of all students have been estimated as having special needs at some point in their educational careers,1 the current and potential future impact is both unacceptable and causes considerable concern. 8. Inadequate State monitoring of the education of persons with disabilities has led to uncertainty as to the exact level of their exclusion from education. Nonetheless, the statistics that do exist indicate a simply unacceptable extent and breadth of such exclusion across all age ranges and both sexes and, indeed, within the disability “community” itself. Two simple examples will suffice to illustrate this point. First, while the net enrolment rate in primary education in the developing world has now increased to 86 per cent over all regions,2 estimates 1 Jonsson, Ture, Wiman, Ronald. Education, Poverty and Disability in Developing Countries. Poverty Reduction Sourcebook, June 2001, p. 11. 2 United Nations, The Millennium Goals Development Report 2006, p. 6. http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2006/MDGReport2006.pdf