Children with Disabilities

A disability includes a physical impairment such as mobility, hearing, visual, and language difficulties, and developmental delays which affect a person’s behaviour, emotional expression, and learning abilities. It includes mild to severe disabilities, from cerebral palsy, paralysis and amputation, to blindness, deafness, autism, and dyslexia. Children may be born with an impairment, or develop one as a result of disease, abuse, or an injury, e.g. many children are the victims of shootings, bombings, and explosions in conflict affected areas.

The degree of disability a person experiences is frequently related to society’s adaptation to meet the needs of people with varying abilities. This is known as the social model of disability which highlights the role of the environment in reducing or increasing the ability of individuals to participate equally in everyday life. For example, a person in a wheelchair has the impairment of not being able to walk. The disability, however, may be that he cannot take up services due to a lack of building access. Protection workers must consider any additional needs or risk factors a person may have as a result of his impairment and disability. Children in developing countries are more vulnerable to disability since poverty and conflicts increase the incidence of impairments, and reduce the provision of necessary health, education, social services, and adaptive provisions to help include children of all abilities.

Children with impairments or special needs are highly vulnerable to discrimination, abandonment, abuse, exploitation, injury and death, since they are more reliant on the cooperation and support of others to meet their basic needs, and may be less able to express their wishes. In some cultures, children with special needs are actively excluded from participating in society since they may be viewed as a source of shame, or unworthy of care and protection.

Government policies should seek to reduce the incidence of injuries and diseases via adequate health care, including education, immunizations, nutrition, and sanitation. All programming and policies for children should promote the social inclusion of children with disabilities at every level. Children should benefit from the reduction of physical and social barriers, adaptation of services and/or rehabilitation assistance in order to enable them to participate as fully as possible in their communities. This includes family support, health facilities, access to education, and respite services to enable children to fulfill their potential. Children of all abilities must be empowered to express their views and to influence their own lives.

The resources in this section focus on children with disabilities in developing countries, and those affected by conflict. They highlight their vulnerability to exclusion and abuse, and provide examples of projects to address the needs of children with special needs.

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Country Care Review: Botswana

Better Care Network, 31 May 2019

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

En la frontera con los Estados Unidos y segregados de la sociedad: Niñas, niños, adolescentes y adultos sujetos a detención arbitraria, abuso y muerte prematura dentro de los orfanatos e instituciones mexicanas

Priscila Rodríguez, Javier Aceves, Laurie Ahern, Lisbet Brizuela, Diane Jacobstein, John Heffernan, Ivonne Millán, Eric Rosenthal - Disability Rights International, 01 May 2019

Disability Rights International (DRI) llevó a cabo dos investigaciones en Baja California, México –la primera en noviembre de 2018 y la segunda en febrero de 2019, visitando a cuatro instituciones privadas en las que se encuentran niñas, niños, adolescentes y personas –incluidas personas migrantes– con discapacidad. Este informe presenta los resultos de esta investigación.

At the Mexico-US border and segregated from society: Children and adults with disabilities subject to arbitrary detention, abuse and early death inside Mexican orphanages and institutions

Priscila Rodríguez, Javier Aceves, Laurie Ahern, Lisbet Brizuela, Diane Jacobstein, John Heffernan, Ivonne Millán, Eric Rosenthal - Disability Rights International, 01 May 2019

Disability Rights International (DRI) carried out two investigation trips to Baja California, Mexico, in November 2018 and February 2019, visiting four residential, private institutions for children and adults – including migrants - with disabilities. This report presents the findings from these investigations.

All Children Belong with Families

Dr. Ruthie-Marie Beckwith - TASH, Inc., 30 Apr 2019

This presentation was given at Disability Rights International and the European Network on Independent Living's webinar on the right of all children to a family by Dr. Ruthie-Marie Beckwith.

Webinar on the Right of the Child to Family under the UN CRPD

The European Network on Independent Living & Disability Rights International, 30 Apr 2019

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 – this 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.

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Presentation on the Right to Family For All Children:International Human Rights Lawand Findings from Research & Experience

Dr. Joan Kaufman, 30 Apr 2019

This presentation, given at Disability Rights International and the European Network on Independent Living's webinar on the right of all children to a family, outlines the Consensus Statement Position on Group Care for Children and Adolescents of the American Orthopsychiatric Association and reviews the research on the detrimental effects of institutionalization on children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project and other studies.

Development and Implementation of a Family Therapy Intervention in Kenya: a Community-Embedded Lay Provider Model

Eve S. Puffer, Elsa A. Friis-Healy, Ali Giusto, Sofia Stafford, David Ayuku - Global Social Welfare, 26 Apr 2019

This paper describes the development of an evidence-informed family therapy intervention designed for lay counselor delivery in low-resource settings and presents findings on the feasibility and acceptability of implementation in Kenya.

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Position paper: The right to live and grow up in a family for all children

Eric Rosenthal - Disability Rights International, European Network on Independent Living, Validity Foundation, and TASH, 25 Apr 2019

This position paper outlines the position of Disability Rights International, European Network on Independent Living, and TASH on residential care and the right of all children to live and grow up in a family.

Timing of the first report and highest level of child protection response in association with early developmental vulnerabilities in an Australian population cohort

Larissa Rossen, Stacy Tzoumakis, Maina Kariuki, Kristin R. Laurens, Merran Butler, Marilyn Chilvers, Felicity Harris, Vaughan J. Carr, Melissa J. Green - Child Abuse & Neglect, 23 Apr 2019

This study examined associations between early developmental vulnerabilities and (1) the highest level of child protection response (where out-of-home care was deemed the highest response among other types of reports/responses), and (2) the developmental timing of the first child protection report.

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Country Care Review: Saudi Arabia

Better Care Network, 09 Apr 2019

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.