This webinar, entitled 'Family and Community Integration of Children under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD): Implications for Group Home and Residential Care of New Human Rights Standards and Findings from Research' was hosted by the European Network on Independent Living & Disability Rights International on 30 April 2019.
The webinar featured the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, Catalina Devandas Aguilar, and DRI's Executive Director Eric Rosenthal, as well as experts from TASH, the European Network on Independent Living, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University.
The webinar sought to clarify States Parties’ obligations under the CRPD, in comparison to other standards, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and guidance provided by the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. The webinar also heard from experts studying the harm caused to children by placement in residential care settings (such as large institutions, group homes, family-type homes, special hospitals etc.). With efforts underway at the international level to reconcile different approaches to the right of the child to grow up in a family – in the CRPD, CRC and the UN Guidelines – the webinar addressed some of the following questions: how to ensure every child can grow up in a family, is residential care justified in any circumstance, how to ensure that children growing up in group homes and other residential care settings are given an opportunity to access family-based care, and the right to independent living.
Part I: CRPD Standards and UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
- Ms Catalina Devandas Aguilar, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Mr Eric Rosenthal, Disability Rights International
Part II: Scientific panel: Impact of group homes and residential care on child development
- Dr. Charles Nelson, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
- Dr. Joan Kaufman, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University and Kennedy Krieger Institute (view presentation)
- Dr. Ruthie Marie Beckwith, Ph.D., Executive Director, TASH (view presentation)
- Moderated by Ines Bulic Cojocariu, Deputy Director, ENIL
