There are millions of infants, children and adolescents locked away and forgotten about in institutions all over the world. But the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – ratified by 174 countries – and the recent comments of the UN Disability Committee, have made it clear this can’t continue.
The committee declared in August 2017: “Large or small group homes are especially dangerous for children, for whom there is no substitute for the need to grow up with a family. Family like institutions are still institutions and are no substitute for care by a family.”