On 7 July 2022, the Better Care Network (BCN) and Disability Rights International (DRI) organised an event with disability and child protection actors focused on the situation of children with disabilities in residential care in Ukraine (including those children who have been returned to families or evacuated from facilities since 24 February 2022).

In late April 2022, Disability Rights International (DRI) brought a team of people with disabilities and family activists, including medical and disability service experts, to visit Ukraine’s institutions for children with disabilities.  DRI visited three facilities for children aged six to adult, and one “baby” home for children from birth to age six.  DRI finds that Ukraine’s children with disabilities with the greatest support needs are living in atrocious conditions – entirely overlooked by major international relief agencies and receiving little support from abroad.  

El 7 de marzo de 2017, un grupo de niñas, niños y adolescentes iniciaron una protesta por el abuso físico y sexual, violación y trata a los que eran sometidos en la institución Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción (Virgen de la Asunción), en la Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala. Virgen de la Asunción era una institución pública donde hasta 800 niños se encontraban detenidos antes de estas protestas. Las autoridades de Virgen de la Asunción llamaron a la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) para reprimir las protestas. Como castigo por haber protestado, un grupo de 56 niñas fue encerrado en un pequeño cuarto con capacidad para 26 personas de pie, sin baño y sin acceso a agua, donde las dejaron pasar la noche.

Ovaj izveštaj, Zaboravljena deca Srbije, se zasniva na nalazima prikupljenim tokom 2019. godine i informacijama koje su DRI i MDRI-S prikupile do vremena njegovog objavljivanja i odnosi se prevashodno na položaj dece, ukazujući na kršenja ljudskih prava koja nisu razrešena i koja se i dalje dešavaju u institucijama socijalne zaštite. Tokom niza godina, DRI, MDRI-S i brojne druge organizacije su ukazivale Vladi Republike Srbije na veoma loše uslove, zlostavljanje, zanemarivanje i nečovečno postupanje koje je i dalje prisutno u institucijama. Vlada Srbije nije preduzela adekvatne korake niti pozvala počinioce na odgovornost.

This report, Forgotten Children of Serbia, is based on findings of investigations conducted from 2019 to the present by DRI and the Mental Disability Rights Initiative of Serbia (MDRI-S) and, focusing especially on children, shows that these human rights concerns have been permitted to continue. The Serbian government has been put on notice about the atrocious conditions, abuse, and torture taking place in its facilities through years of advocacy by DRI, MDRI-S, and other allies and has failed to take action or hold abusers accountable.

Children and adults with disabilities throughout Mexico are confined to institutions, segregated from society, and exposed to these dangers – because of the country’s failure to create social supports that would allow people to lead a full life in the community. Mexico’s law strips people with disabilities of the right to make decisions about their own lives – leaving them unable to file complaints or demand accountability when they are abused.