State of the World's Children 2013 - Unicef

It is much harder to protect children and provide them with an
opportunity for a life in society when their ties to family have
already been broken.
beds or held in cages – whether
to prevent self-abuse or to help
overwhelmed staff cope with
the demands of the many children
in their care. The United
Nations Committee against
Torture and the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture
have said that the prolonged
use of restraints may constitute
torture.
For a child who has already
been institutionalized, falling ill
can be a death sentence. Staff
members at facilities in more
than one country have said
that children with disabilities
are routinely denied medical
treatment. Institution staff have
also told us – incorrectly – that
children with developmental
disabilities lack the ability to
feel pain. So, in some cases,
medical procedures are conducted
without anaesthesia.
In one facility, children’s teeth
were extracted with pliers;
elsewhere, children received
electro-convulsive therapy
with no anaesthesia or
muscle relaxants.
Children have been given electric
shocks, physically restrained
for long periods and isolated
with the express purpose of
causing pain, on the theory that
this ‘aversive therapy’ would
extinguish behaviour deemed
inappropriate. A teacher in the
United States described one girl
– blind, deaf and non-verbal –
who was shocked for moaning.
It turned out she had a broken
tooth.
Without oversight and human
rights protections, children have,
in effect, disappeared in institutions.
Human rights monitoring
and enforcement programmes to
protect against violence, exploitation
and abuse – as required by
Article 16 of CRPD – are absent in
most of the facilities we have visited.
In some cases, authorities
do not keep track of the names
or numbers of children detained
in these places.
Official statistics are unreliable
and often understate reliance
upon segregated service systems.
The numbers are often
limited to orphanages and do
not include children detained in
other types of institutions, such
as boarding schools, health-care
or psychiatric facilities, criminal
justice systems or homeless
shelters. Private or religious
institutions, which may be much
larger than government orphanages,
are often not counted.
The entrances to some orphanages
and other institutions are
emblazoned with the logos of
governments, corporate donors,
churches or private charities.
Even when financial assistance
from international donors or
technical assistance agencies
makes up a small portion of an
institution’s operating budget,
this support can provide an
apparent ‘seal of approval’. DRI
has found bilateral and multilateral
support – both official
and from voluntary donations
by staff – for such amenities
as playgrounds at orphanages
where children die for want of
medical care and where they
are tied to beds. These donors
may be well intentioned but
this support runs counter to the
intent of the CRPD and other
rights instruments that protect
people from segregation.
No child should ever be taken
away from her or his family on
the basis of disability. DRI is
calling on every government
and international donor agency
to commit to preventing any
new placements in orphanages.
It is much harder to protect children
and provide them with an
opportunity for a life in society
when their ties to family have
already been broken. The detention
of children in institutions
is a fundamental human rights
violation. We can bring it to
an end, on a worldwide scale,
through a moratorium on new
placements.
ESSENTIALS OF PROTECTION
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