The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)   The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday named U.S. professor Douglas Biklen as the laureate of the 2011 UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize to Promote Quality Education for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.
Established in 2002, the UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize recognizes the outstanding individuals, groups, organizations or centers that promote quality education for persons with intellectual disabilities.
Biklen is dean of the School of Education, and professor and founding faculty member of the Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies of the Syracuse University in the United States.
His books and films, including Achieving the Complete School (1985), Schooling without Labels (1992), and My Classic Life as an Artist (2004), have had a significant impact on the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families, and influenced prevailing perceptions of such disabilities.
An awarded ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 29 and will be hosted by the government of Kuwait which funded the prize.
The prize is awarded every two years. Twenty three candidatures were proposed by member states for the Prize and the laureate was selected on the recommendation of an international jury.