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.

Behind the closed doors of Mexico City’s institutions for people with disabilities, atrocious abuses are taking place that amount to nothing less than torture. Children and adults are denied treatment and are left to languish covered in their own urine and feces in filthy dehumanizing conditions.

The present report is based on the results of a year-long study carried out by Disability Rights International (DRI) together with the Women’s Group of the Colectivo Chuhcan –the first organization in Mexico directed by persons with psychosocial disabilities.

Lessons from international experience in responding to the urgent human rights needs of children with disabilities in Ukraine’s orphanage system

This report is the product of a 3-year investigation by Disability Rights International (DRI) into the orphanages, adult social care homes and other institutions that house children and adults with disabilities in the Republic of Georgia.

This report documents violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities in the Republic of Georgia under international human rights treaties ratified by Georgia, including the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Georgia has signed.

For any criminal justice system to work effectively, it is essential to take into account the rights of persons with mental disabilities given that they are more likely than the rest of the population to be involved in criminal proceedings – either as defendants, victims or witnesses.During criminal proceedings, these persons with physical and mental disabilities face numerous obstacles to effective exercise of their right to justice.