All children have the right to live and grow up with a family. The preamble of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recognizes that for their “full and harmonious development”, all children “should grow up in a family environment.”

Children and adults with disabilities subject to arbitrary detention, abuse and early death inside Mexican orphanages and institutions (2019)

Throughout the world, children with disabilities are separated from families due to stigma, discrimination, and economic marginalization. Children with disabilities are more at risk of being placed in institutions than other children, and they are often left out of deinstitutionalization and community programs.

The product of a two-year investigation by Disability Rights International (DRI) into institutions and orphanages across the country. DRI visited twenty-one children’s institutions – both public and private – in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi and rural and coastal communities. There were approximately 3,400 children in the facilities investigated by DRI.

This report documents the human rights violations, exploitation, and trafficking of children with and without disabilities in Guatemala. Guatemala has failed to create the protections and support needed to help children live with a family – especially children with disabilities. DRI is also concerned that private charities and international donors are supporting orphanages and perpetuating discrimination. International support – including “voluntourism” – leaves children open to segregation, abuse, and further exploitation by traffickers.

Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2017); On the right of people with disabilities to live independently.

Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2017)

Between March 7-11, 2017, investigators from Disability Rights International (DRI) visited Guatemala. DRI visited Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción (Hogar Seguro), a public institution where more than 700 children were detained. During the visit DRI interviewed the survivors of a fire that took place on March 7, 2017 and has killed more than three dozen girls (the number has been rising in recent days).

A Mandate to End Placement of Children in Institutions and Orphanages: The duty of governments and donors to prevent segregation and torture (2017)

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.