Coalition of six organizations launched a monitoring report “Child’s Rights Monitoring in Residential Care and Education Institutions” that disclosed numerous violations of basic rights and freedoms of children living there as well as long standing systemic problems of institutional care.
In autumn 2005 Global Initiative on Psychiatry, Association of Phone Psychological Support Services, Lithuanian Welfare Society for Persons with Mental Disability „Viltis“, Center for Child Support, Child‘s Rights Ombudsman‘s Office and Human Rights Monitoring Institute formed a coalition with the aim to produce an in-depth assessment of child’s rights in the residential care and specialized education institutions of Lithuania.
Under support of European Commission and Nordic Ministers Council during year 2005-2006 expert team visited 20 facilities throughout the country. Research revealed that life in the institutional environment interferes with successful socialization that is the ultimate goal of upbringing. On the contrary dependence from institutionalized care develops and children lose even the skills they had before their placement.
Right to respect of private life, freedom of expression, right to protection from all forms of abuse and other basic rights of the children are routinely violated. Children living in the residential care and special education facilities suffer multidimensional abuse coming from their caretakers as well as from other children, the worst of it being physical, sexual and psychological violence. Bullying and jail-type jargon are widely spread as well as the usual in-mate behaviour norms.
Experts state that this is due not only to individual faults of the staff of institutions, but mostly to the long standing system problems. The outdated institutional care model is an excellent breeding ground for all types of violations and reform must be considered immediately.
Therefore the point of view to the institutional care must be ultimately changed and its mission should be formulated according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the course of the immediate reform big residential care homes should be replaced by family care or at least small family-type care homes that would ensure adequate socialization and would prepare children for independent life within society.
Recommendations of the report also stress the necessity to employ all possible ways of keeping the child in the family if this is compatible with his safety including world-wide acknowledged effective forms of support and close monitoring of risk-group families.
The report was published under the frame of the project “Human Rights Monitoring and Prevention of Torture in the Closed Institutions: Jails, Police Detention Centers, Psychiatric Care and Residential Care Institutions in the Baltic Countries” supported by European Commission.
Full text of the report (in Lithuanian) see in the Project section.
Read more (in Lithuanian) in the news portal Delfi.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute