Side event: Lessons learned from Ukraine: Implementing the right to live in the community for children and adults in institutions during a time of war and emergency

United Nations, 15th session of Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Friday, June 17, 2022 10:00-11:15 EST 

Accessibility: CART and Sign Language Interpretation Available
Moderator: Eric Rosenthal, Executive Director, Disability Rights International 
Speakers: 

Left Behind in the War: Dangers Facing Children with Disabilities In Ukraine’s Orphanages

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.  

New Report: Left Behind in the War: Dangers Facing Children with Disabilities in Ukraine's Orphanages

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 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.

Ukraine Emergency Action – DRI Seeks Immediate Support

Your support is needed to protect children and adults with disabilities in Ukraine.  Everyone is suffering.  But babies, children, and adults with disabilities in group homes, orphanages and institutions are lost and forgotten. In this conflict, they are in grave danger of being abandoned by staff -- facing starvation and death.  DRI is sounding the alarm to protect the lives of people most at-risk. Even before the war, Ukraine’s extensive network of orphanages left children without the love, care, and protection of family.

Joint contribution of disability rights organisations to the 2021 EU-Ukraine Human Rights Dialogue

This submission focuses on the situation of children in institutions and the status of the deinstitutionalisation process in Ukraine. Disability Rights International (DRI), European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) and Validity Foundation commend the commitment of European Union to promote the fundamental rights for persons with disabilities and in particular its commitment to deinstitutionalisation of children globally.

No Way Home: The Exploitation and Abuse of Children in Ukraine’s Orphanages

A product of a three-year investigation by Disability Rights International (DRI) into the egregious human rights violations perpetrated against nearly 100,000 children – with and without disabilities – who are left to grow up segregated from society in orphanages, psychiatric facilities, residential boarding schools, and other institutions. For children with disabilities, orphanages are a gateway to lifelong institutionalization in abusive adult facilities.