Publication date:
Crimes Behind Closed Doors: Violence Against Children in an Educational and Rehabilitation Center
Education is a fundamental right of every child, but it should not come at the expense of a child’s right to a safe and loving family environment. While there is a perception that boarding schools have advantages due to specialized facilities, objective evidence suggests that their educational standards are often low.
For children with special educational needs, who may have limited access to services, such institutions become a form of structural violence. In addition, institutional culture leads to a loss of relationships and community, increasing the risk of violence and abuse, which often goes unreported due to the closed nature of institutions.
Due to the same secrecy and unlimited power of adults, children are often afraid to report their abusers. Graduates of orphanages testify to widespread psychological abuse by staff, physical punishment, forced psychiatric treatment, and sexual violence.
This is the terrible case of structural violence against children in a closed educational and rehabilitation center in Ukraine that came to light this week. The children found a way to tell volunteers about the perpetrators, and adults believed the children and rushed to help.
The monitoring visit, which included representatives of the member organizations of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network(SOS Children’s Villages, Voices of Children, and Ridni), collected evidence that the director of a special educational institution systematically molested minors and committed sexual violence. His wife, also an employee of the institution, physically punished children by beating them with an iron rod. The institution practiced a sanctioning policy with compulsory treatment of children in a psychiatric hospital in case of disobedience. Children were subjected to psychological violence and humiliation. The children’s basic needs, such as sufficient food, were not met.
“To briefly summarize our observations during the monitoring visit, the children are stressed, frightened, and under constant moral pressure from adults. Children do not have examples of healthy communication with the staff. The interests and needs of the child come last in the institution. The basic needs of children are not taken care of at all,” said the psychologist of the CF “Voices of Children”.
Over the past six months, children and others on their behalf have filed complaints with the National Police, the local children’s service, and the Department of Education, but have received no response. On the contrary, for every complaint about the conditions of detention or the behavior of the institution’s staff, children were beaten with sticks and humiliated. The director boasted of impunity and “the right connections,” threatening volunteer organizations with consequences if they disclosed information.
The children who testified are currently safe. Criminal proceedings have been opened and an investigation has begun. This case is one of the few that have come to light, and the children have been given a chance to be saved. Behind the closed doors of orphanages, according to research, violence against children is common and constant, but the vast majority of cases never come to light, and children remain unrescued from their abusers. Ukraine must become a country free of boarding schools, orphanages, and all forms of institutionalized care, no matter what they are called.
Photo: the monitoring visit team gives testimony to psychologists.
Coordination Center for the Development of Family Education and Child Care