Following a four year investigation, MDRI released a report in November 2007 detailing the human rights abuses perpetrated against children and adults with disabilities in institutions throughout Serbia. "Torment not Treatment: Serbia's Segregation and Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities" outlines our horrific findings. The report documents our findings that children and adults are tied to beds -- never allowed to leave their cribs -- some for years at a time. In addition, filthy conditions, contagious diseases, lack of medical care, rehabilitation and judicial oversight renders placement in a Serbian institution life threatening for both children and adults.
Torment not Treatment was the product of investigations throughout Serbia over a four year period. In July 2007 we discovered particularly atrocious and dangerous conditions at the Kulina institution. 580 people are detained in the facility for life – nearly half of them children from age 3 upwards. Most of the adults in the facility were placed there as children and have never left the institution. The facility has limited running water and electricity, and living areas are barren and filthy. Staffing is so low that many children and adults never leave their cribs or beds. We observed row after row of children tied in four or five point restraints – their arms and legs splayed against the corners of their beds and rope around their waists. Staff explained that nearly all the patients are “auto-aggressive” – the act of hitting, punching, or abusing themselves. Such behavior is known to be a sign of extreme neglect – due to the lack of any emotional connections, inactivity, and near total sensory deprivation of children left alone in cribs with no human contact. More than 50 percent of people in this facility are exposed to serious infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B. Despite government claims that they have ended new placements in the facility, a six year old girl was left at the institution by her mother at the time of our visit.
Along with the publication of Torment not Treatment, MDRI released video of the conditions in Serbian facilities and made them available to the media. Our findings, corroborated by disturbing video and photography, brought the abuse in Serbia to the forefront of the media’s attention. NBC covered our report on three of their primetime news programs and are planning an in-depth report on the situation in Serbia for broadcast in the spring of this year. In addition, our finding made the front page of newspapers in Serbia and Eastern Europe. The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, ITN News, BBC News, CNN, Associated Press, Reuters and hundreds of other local, domestic, and international media also covered the story in great detail.
Interviewed on NBC, prior to the release of the report, the Serbian Minister of Labor admitted that conditions were inhumane and that people should not be placed in institutions of this kind. Days after the release of our report, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture visited Serbia to look into our findings. Additionally, as a result of our work, a broad coalition of 61 non-governmental organizations came together to demand that the government end abuses in its institutions and provide a meaningful opportunity for the community integration of its citizens.
MDRI has recently opened an office in Belgrade, Serbia to support the development of a local advocacy movement in the country and to keep the pressure on the government of Serbia for reform. Our new Country Director, Dragana Ciric, is a child psychologist with extensive experience working in Serbian orphanages, Dragana will advocate particularly to protect children detained in these facilities – many of whom are abandoned permanently to cribs, left tied down, and uncared for by any loving adult.