Warehouses of Neglect: Human Rights Violations in Bulgaria's Institutions for Children and Young Adults with Mental Disabilities

Bulgaria Violates the Right to Education of up to 3,000 Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Elizabeth Stubbins — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:00:45 -0700

The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) has ruled that Bulgaria has violated the right to education of up to 3,000 children with intellectual disabilities. Only 6.2% of children institutionalised on the basis of diagnosed or presumed intellectual disabilities receive an education, as compared to 94% of Bulgarian children in the population as a whole.

New Statistics Reveal the Thousands of Children Institutionalised in Bulgaria

Elizabeth Stubbins — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:36:36 -0700

Bulgaria's State Agency for Child Protection has published new data on the number of children in institutions run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education, as at 31 December 2006. These data show the number of institutionalised children at the point when Bulgaria joined the EU: at a time when the government had publicly committed itself to a programme of deinstitutionalisation for children and young adults with disabilities.

Fundraising and Lobbying Updates

Elizabeth Stubbins — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:36:01 -0800

The Campaign for Bulgaria's Abandoned Children (www.tbact.org ) was established in the autumn of 2007 following the broadcast of ...

An Outline of Bulgaria's Obligations under International Law

Elizabeth Stubbins — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:44:00 -0800

The following analysis of Bulgaria’s obligations under international law and standards is presented in an ‘outline’ form for ease of reference for campaigners and lobbyists on children’s rights in Bulgaria. Any of these treaty articles can be cited in journalism pieces on the subject, or in campaign letters to Bulgarian and EU officials. Please email me with any questions on the legal specifics listed below:

Campaigns - Helping Rositsa

Elizabeth Stubbins — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:30:21 -0700

Elsabe Louw of the Lora Foundation contacted me after having read this blog's entry on Dzhurkovo. To the best of my knowledge, Rositsa remains without medical treatment at Dzhurkovo. I am posting this information, and the photographs below, in the hope that medical professionals might offer Rositsa assessment and appropriate treatment. Please send me an email if you are able to help.

Warehouses of Neglect - Photographs from Dzhurkovo and Petrovo

Elizabeth Stubbins — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:17:15 -0700

These teenagers are rocking rhythmically to and fro, a sign of neglect and institutionalization. The girl lying in her friend's lap was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but was never taught to walk. Her limbs are wasted, and the skin on her arms is bruised. Dzhurkovo social care home, Laki, June 2006.

"Bulgaria's Abandoned Children" - How to Help

Elizabeth Stubbins — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:06:07 -0700

The following email gives ideas and some cautionary information on how individuals and communities might offer lobbying, activism or professional assistance to institutionalized children in Bulgaria.

Documentary - "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children" - BBC Four Thursday 13 Sept 10pm BST

Elizabeth Stubbins — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:39:31 -0700

On Thursday 13 September 2007 at 10pm (UK time), the documentary "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children" will be broadcast on BBC Four. The film shows the conditions at the children's social care home at Mogilino, Bulgaria, in 2006 and 2007.

Mission Diary- Sofia Home for Children with Mental Disabilities

Elizabeth Stubbins — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:27:50 -0700

The international law is clear that Bulgaria must provide primary, secondary and fundamental education to institutionalized children. While the Convention on the Rights of the Child does not provide for reparations or remedies specifically, there is an argument that young adults whose right to education was systematically violated while they were under 18 should receive specialist remedial education as a form of rehabilitation and reparation: an effective remedy for this violation of their human rights.

Mission Diary - Petrovo

Elizabeth Stubbins — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:55:06 -0800

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has repeatedly expressed its concern at the high number of children with disabilities placed in institutions, and the risk of ill-treatment experienced by children in institutional care. It raised these concerns specifically in its Concluding Observations to the initial report of Bulgaria on its implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, suggesting that "appropriate alternatives to institutional care be developed, with the best interests of the child as the primary consideration..."

Mission Diary - Dzhurkovo

Elizabeth Stubbins — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:12:49 -0800

The social care home at Dzhurkovo currently houses 39 young adults, all diagnosed with mental disabilities. The four bedridden young adults are at risk of neglect amounting to inhuman or degrading treatment, prohibited absolutely by international human rights law; and there are concerns that some of Dzhurkovo's residents may be arbitrarily detained...

Recommendations

Elizabeth Stubbins — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:16:37 -0800

Bulgarian authorities, the EU Commission and member states must work together immediately to dismantle Bulgaria’s network of social care homes, and to fund alternative social services for Bulgaria’s disabled children.[1] Ongoing violations of health and education rights must cease, and reparations should be provided, in the form of compensation, rehabilitation, and remedial education to assist those children and young adults harmed by inhuman or degrading treatment in Bulgaria’s institutions.

To the Bulgarian Government: Urgently dismantle the network of social care homes for children and adults with mental disabilities; Do not restrict deinstitutionalization to a prevention of future placement in social care homes; Extend the pilot programmes for day care centres for disabled children and adults; Create and finance a network for foster-care; Ensure that disabled children and young adults who are reintegrated into their family environments can be monitored closely for their safety, welfare and health; Urgently improve health care provision while deinstitutionalization is pending; Amend the law on guardianship so that the Director of a social care home can give informed consent to medical treatment for a disabled child; Finance and provide for a systematic review of the psychiatric diagnoses of children and adults placed in social care homes, genuinely to challenge the flawed assumption that all institutionalized children and adults have mental disabilities; Train experts in child-care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and special education to care for disabled children and adults in the community – via home visits and work in day centres; Train health-care workers and rehabilitation specialists in a rights-based approach to the care of children and adults with mental disabilities; Combat the stigma and associated discrimination against children and adults with disabilities, as part of a programme of legal reform and community reintegration; Provide reparations in the form of compensation, rehabilitation, remedial education and vocational training for those children and adults who have suffered violations of their human rights while in social care homes. To EU Institutions, member states and international donors: Share international expertise on diagnostics, rehabilitation and special education; Train specialist staff members in new methods of rehabilitation; Train doctors in their obligations to treat disabled children and adults from social care homes; Finance the training of a sufficient number of qualified special teachers for children with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. Do not continue to fund social care homes which seek funding for material improvements: instead direct funding at alternative social services, and the training of specialist staff for community care and post-return monitoring.

[1] See inter alia the obligations of ‘international cooperation, [and] the exchange of appropriate information’ in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 23 (4), and ‘international assistance and cooperation’ in Article 2(1) ICESCR.

Principal Findings

Elizabeth Stubbins — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:11:51 -0800
At all three institutions, the state had failed to respect and ensure residents’ rights to education and to the best attainable standard of physical and mental health, as mandated by Bulgaria’s international treaty commitments...

Introduction and Methodology

Elizabeth Stubbins — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:08:41 -0800
When a child is abandoned to the state in Bulgaria, he or she risks spending her whole life in institutions. Human rights violations in these institutions range from inhuman or degrading treatment arising from conditions of detention (Art.3, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ECHR); violations of the right to the best attainable standard of physical and mental health (Art.12, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR) and the right to education (Art. 13, ICESCR and Art.28 and 29 CRC) and for those under 18, a whole host of violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.