In May, 2006 Mental Disability Rights International released the report, Hidden Suffering: Romania's Segregation and Abuse of Infants and Children with Disabilities, which found children with disabilities hidden and wasting away, near death, in Romania's adult psychiatric facilities and describes teenagers weighing no more than 27 pounds. Some children were tied down with bed sheets, their arms and legs twisted and left to atrophy.

Despite Romanian government claims that it had ended the placement of babies in institutions, MDRI found infants languishing in a medical facility so poorly staffed that the children never leave their cribs. Many of these children had no identity papers. Officially, they do not exist.

The shocking revelations came at a time when Romania, in its effort to join the European Union (EU), was under pressure to reduce the number of children in institutions. Romanian officials admitted to MDRI that they had no idea how many children with disabilities are in adult facilities.

Following the release of the report, which was covered by all the major press outlets around the world, a coalition of 33 Romanian charities and non-governmental organizations working with children, took out a full page ad in the June 12, 2006 issue of the Financial Times calling for the European Union to “stop accepting denials and empty promises and demand concrete action” from the Romanian government.

Sadly, horrendous abuses of children continue in Romania. In 2007, the Center for Legal Resources – a Romanian human rights organization – with support from UNICEF, reported that it had found babies, under the age of 2 years, placed in institutions for people with mental disabilities, including in adult psychiatric institutions. They also described living conditions in other institutions for children “downright miserable.”

MDRI is committed to continuing its fight against these egregious human rights abuses in Romania and elsewhere in the world where children with disabilities are locked away for a lifetime – tantamount to a physical and emotional death sentence.