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ABANDONED TO THE STATE

CRUELTY AND NEGLECT IN RUSSIAN ORPHANAGES

Human Rights Watch

New York ·Washington · London · Brussels

Copyright © December 1998 by Human Rights Watch.

All Rights Reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 1-56432191-6

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-88715

Cover photograph © Kate Brooks, 1998. Russian orphans confined to barren day room of Internat X, reaching for candies.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is a joint report by two divisions of Human Rights Watch: the Children's Rights and the Europe and Central Asia Divisions. It was researched and written by Kathleen Hunt, a consultant to Human Rights Watch, who as a journalist investigated the orphanages in post-Ceausescu Romania for the New York Times Sunday Magazine and covered the break-up of the Soviet Union from 19911994 for National Public Radio.

The bulk of the investigation was conducted by Ms. Hunt in Russia, from February 10 to March 9, 1998. Considerable preparatory research was undertaken during January, and follow-up since her return from Russia. The Human Rights Watch Moscow office provided invaluable research and administrative backup throughout this period, and we are particularly grateful to Lyuda Alpern for her full-time assistance.

The report was edited by Lois Whitman from the Children's Rights Division and Rachel Denber of the Europe and Central Asia Division. Michael McClintock, deputy program director and Dinah PoKempner, deputy general counsel, provided additional comments on the manuscript, and Shalu Rozario of the Children's Rights Division and Alex Frangos of the Europe and Central Asia Division provided production assistance.

It is a pity that a vise of secrecy and fear, reminiscent of Soviet times, has tightened around the isolated world of Russia's state orphanages. Many dedicated orphanage staff and foreign volunteers begged us not to reveal their names, or the institutions in which they worked. Russian workers, they said, would be fired for talking to an outsider. Foreign charity workers would be expelled from the institutions and the doors slammed on humanitarian assistance. This would further isolate the system which they felt a desperate need to improve. We have respected these requests.

This report, nevertheless, would not have been possible without the assistance of many who did take the risk to share what they knew about state-run institutions for abandoned children. Of those in Moscow who wish to be named, we especially thank Sergei Koloskov, father of a Down syndrome child and president of the Down Syndrome Association for families with Down syndrome children, Sarah Philips, a former volunteer with the charity organization Action for Russia’s Children, and Boris Altshuler, Lyubov Kushnir and Lyudmilla Alexeeva of Rights of the Child, Russia's leading nongovernmental organization dedicated to defending children's rights.

Also in Moscow, we wish to express our gratitude to Dr. Anatoly Severny, of the Independent Association of Child Psychiatrists and Psychologists, Marina Rodman, and Sergei A. Levin. Olga Alexeeva of Charities Aid Foundation shared her expertise and the bounty of her research archives, and Karina A. Moskalenko provided invaluable help with our legal research. Further information and insightswere provided by Equilibre, Médécins sans Frontières, and Alexander Ogorodnikov, who runs an independent shelter for runaway children.

Several translators labored over the raft of legal documentation assembled, and assisted with lengthy interviews with orphans. We especially thank Lena Sheveleva, Irina Savelyeva, Tanya Morschakova, Maria Armand, and Alexander Bogdanov.

On our two missions outside of Moscow, Human Rights Watch was generously assisted in St. Petersburg by Médécins du Monde/Doctors of the World; Alexander Rodin, a former deputy in the city council and now independent advocate for children in orphanages, juvenile detention, and the streets; and Alexander Bogdanov, who assisted in the research gathered from a group of teenaged orphans. Our research outside of Moscow would not have been possible without the help of Eduard A. Alexeyev. Further thanks go to Doctor Mikhail M. Airumyan, president of the independent Russian Association of Baby Houses, and Dr. Olga Y. Vassilieva, deputy director of one Russian baby house in a region north of Moscow.

Across the vast territory of the Russian Federation, we would like to extend our appreciation for the time given by dozens of people whom we interviewed extensively by telephone, gathering background information on institutions in rural and remote regions. There are far too many to mention here, but we especially wish to thank Vera Strebizh of Shans, a children's rights group, and Anna Pastukhova of Memorial Society, both of Ekaterinburg.

For the photographs in this report, we are deeply grateful to freelance photographer Kate Brooks, Sergei Koloskov, Natasha Fairweather, and to the British company Independent Television News for permitting us to view the tape of their cameraman’s visit to a shocking psychoneurological internat. Valuable background information was provided by other journalists, including Zoya Trounova, and Sam Hutchinson, who described the inhuman conditions in the orphanages they had visited during the past two years.

Finally, our heartfelt thanks go to the many Russian orphans who talked freely with us. To protect their privacy, the names of all children in this report have been changed as indicated in the footnotes. Our sincerest hopes go to those who spoke with us as well as to those who are too young, or too neglected, to have yet learned to speak. We call on the international community to hasten the day when they can unlock their minds and develop their full human potential.

CONTENTS

GLOSSARY OF TERMS xi

I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1

Abandoned Children as an Underclass 3

Failure to Live Up to National Commitments 5

Failure to Comply with International Obligations 7

Recommendations 10

To the Russian Government 10

On reducing the number of children consigned to state institutions: 10

On the matter of discriminatory status 11

On the matter of punishment, abuse and deplorable conditions 13

On the right to health care 14

On reforming the management and treatment of orphans 14

To the United Nations 15

To the Council of Europe 16

To Donor Governments 16

To Nongovernmental Organizations 17

II. THE ODYSSEY OF A RUSSIAN ORPHAN 18

Background 18

Archipelago of closed institutions 20

Odyssey of a child 25

Type 1: Best prospects for a child abandoned at birth and healthy 25

Type 2: Worst prospects for a child abandoned at birth and disabled 27

Variations on these cases 28

Prejudice against orphans: a legacy of ignorance and fear 29

Fear to expose the truth 31

III. RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL AND RUSSIAN LAWS 33

Abandonment and Disability as a Basis for Invidious Discrimination 33

The Decision to Institutionalize The Child 36

The right to a family 36

Arbitrary deprivation of liberty 37

The child’s right to development 39

The right to life 40

The right to health 40

The right to education 42

Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and torture 44

Physical Abuse 45

Psychological Abuse 46

Grievance procedures 47

Specific standards applicable to children with mental or physical disabilities 48

Russian Law 51

IV. THE “GILDED CAGE” OF THE DOM REBYONKA:INFANCY TO FOUR YEARS 57

Introduction 57

Lying-down rooms—gross neglect of infants with disabilities 57

Compounding a stigma with multiple diagnoses 58

Debilitating effects of institutional deprivation 61

Orphans denied personal possessions 64

The abuse of sedative drugs 65

Discrimination against orphan babies requiring medical care 66

Rationale of budget and staff limitations 68

Conclusion 70

V. THE POINT OF NO RETURN:DIAGNOSIS AT AGE FOUR 71

Introduction to Russia's Psychological-Medical-Pedagogical Commission 72

A hazardous turning point: intimidation, inappropriateness and error 75

Inappropriateness of the test 77

Justice denied: the right to appeal diagnosis 78

Intimidation in front of the Psychological-Medical-Pedagogical Commission 80

Ruined lives: misdiagnoses by the commission 82

Conclusion 88

VI. CHILDHOOD DOOMED:PSYCHONEUROLOGICAL INTERNATY 89

Human Rights Watch site visit to Internat X 90

The Lying-Down Room 91

Confinement in a dark room 94

Education denied 96

"Smart" Orphans 96

"Dumb" Orphans 98

Unmarked graves and abuse of authority 99

Discovery of Internat Y 100

WORKER No.1: 102

WORKER No. 2: 103

Internat Z 105

General observations on abuses of orphans classed as imbetsily and idioty 106

Malign neglect of medical needs 106

Excessive use of strong drugs 108

Conclusion 108

VII. THE DYETSKII DOM:TRUNCATED LIVES AND GRATUITOUS CRUELTY 109

Introduction 109

Corporal punishment by orphanage director and staff 114

Isolation in a frigid room 117

Corporal punishment sharpened by public shaming 118

Kiril V.’s Story 118

"Collective Punishment" 120

Punishment-by-proxy and vicious hazing 122

Psychiatric hospital as punishment 125

Corruption, abuse of authority, and alleged crime 128

Grievances and impunity 130

The financial interest in orphanages 131

Conclusion 133

VIII. PROGRESS AND IMPEDIMENTS IN ENSURING ORPHANS' RIGHTS 134

Skeletons come back to life 134

A remarkable intervention 135

Showing the pictures at Internat X 136

Other progress 137

Russian government reaction to critics 139

High risk for Russian orphans 140

Conclusion 142

IX. CONCLUSION 144

APPENDICES 146

APPENDIX A. INTERNATIONAL LAW 146

U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child 146

Excerpts from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 169

Excerpts from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 172

United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 175

Principles for the Protection of Persons With Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care 192

Excerpts from the Principles of Medical Ethics Relevant to the Role of Health Personnel 207

APPENDIX B. RUSSIAN LAW 208

APPENDIX C. COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, COMMENTS ON THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 209

APPENDIX D. FLOW CHART: LIFE OF AN ORPHAN IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 1998 214

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