International and European legal and policy frameworks recognise that issues relating to violence against children with disabilities require the special attention of legislators and professionals. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are essential to ensure that children with disabilities are protected from violence; the former is specific to children, while the latter relates to persons with disabilities. All EU Member States have ratified the CRC and since September 2015, 25 EU Member States have ratified the CRPD. In 2010, the European Union also joined the CRPD. Thus, the Convention has become an integral part of the Union’s legal order, and EU legislation as well as EU practices must be compatible with its requirements.
Member States have also recognised the protection needs of children with disabilities in a variety of ways, including by criminalising violence or developing national policies to address it.[i]
Violence against children with disabilities:
legislation, policies and programmes in the EU[ii]
Children with disabilities face significant barriers to the enjoyment of their human rights. They are often excluded from society and sometimes live in structures far from their families. They are also denied access to basic services such as health care and education, and face stigma and discrimination. Protection against all forms of violence is recognised in European Union (EU) and national law. Although protection measures exist in the EU, children with disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence, sexual abuse, bullying at school, at home, or in institutions than children without disabilities; they also often face violence related to their disability.
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has examined the important but under-researched issue of violence against children with disabilities through desk research and interviews with relevant stakeholders. This report presents the findings. It outlines relevant international and European standards and reviews national laws and policies on violence against children with disabilities. It also describes the extent and multiple causes, settings and forms of such violence, and presents measures and initiatives to prevent it.
Protection of children from violence, exploitation and abuse[iii]
Overall figures, which should be treated with caution due to the diversity of definitions of abuse, estimate that 200 million children suffer from some form of disability. (UNESCO – Education for all global monitoring report 2010: Reaching the marginalized 1). However, statistics on the incidence and prevalence of disability in children are scarce and assumptions are often contained within wide ranges of uncertainty and are often several years old. It is generally accepted that children with disabilities are at risk:
– 3.7 times more likely to be victims of violence of some kind;
– 3.6 times more likely to be victims of physical violence; and
– 2.9 times more likely to be victims of sexual violence
Children with a disability related to mental illness or intellectual impairments appear to be the most vulnerable, with a 4.6 times higher risk of sexual violence compared to those without disabilities.
The realities of disability are alarming around the world. Legislation, policies and attitudes that fail to recognize the legal capacity of children with disabilities are aggravating factors in their discrimination and exclusion from society and make them more vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation.
Figures are sorely lacking, the available data are generally rather old and unreliable, because violence, abuse, neglect, disability are terms that are subject to a plurality of definitions, which illustrates the difficulty of giving one that is precise and consensual (Senate work).
The ProChild project has not specifically worked on the incidence and prevalence of disabled minors, however everything points to this specific population as privileged victims.
Stigma, discrimination and lack of information about disability, as well as lack of social support for carers of children with disabilities, are factors that put children with disabilities at increased risk of violence.
Caring for a child with a disability can place an additional burden on parents or foster families or institutions and increase the risk of abuse.
Children whose disability affects their ability to communicate may be particularly vulnerable to abuse as communication barriers may hinder their ability to disclose abuse.
The child’s sometimes disturbing, distressing and burdensome behaviour creates an additional risk. Parents are weakened by fatigue, shouting, lack of sleep and social pressure. So, yes, sometimes, some of them break down and are no longer able to control their impulses.
Unfortunately, children placed in institutions are also very exposed to violence. Social workers are sometime poorly trained for this type of care, which is even more difficult than that of other children, the lack of time and means, but also the fact that care institutions sometimes have an ambiguous position on this issue. There are many examples of attempts to report to the hierarchy which result in sanctions against employees, including dismissal.
Institutional violence does not only concern care centres, but others such as national education, cultural / sports associations… which do not offer the necessary means for the education / socialisation of disabled minors are also abusive / neglectful institutions.
It is recalled that children with disabilities are at risk:
– 3.7 times more likely to be victims of violence of any kind;
– 3.6 times more likely to be victims of physical violence; and
– 2.9 times more likely to be victims of sexual violence
Children with a disability related to mental illness or intellectual impairments appear to be the most vulnerable, with a 4.6 times higher risk of sexual violence compared to those without disabilities.
Risk factors
Stigma, discrimination and lack of information about disability, as well as lack of social support for caregivers of children with disabilities, are factors that put children with disabilities at increased risk of violence. Placing children with disabilities in institutions also makes them more vulnerable. In these settings and elsewhere, children with communication impairments have a reduced ability to disclose abusive experiences.
“Children with disabilities are disproportionately vulnerable to violence and their needs have been neglected for far too long,” notes Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability at WHO. We know that there are specific strategies to prevent violence and to mitigate its consequences. Now we need to determine whether they are effective for children with disabilities as well. A programme of action needs to be established”.
Urgent need for research in other countries
A study referenced by the Lancet Articles| Volume 380, ISSUE 9845, P899-907, September 08, 2012I “Prevalence and risk of violence against children with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies” provides the strongest available evidence of violence against children with disabilities. It encompasses 17 studies providing data on 18,374 children with disabilities living in high-income countries – Finland, France, Israel, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America – and highlights the urgent need for quality research in low- and middle-income countries.
There is an urgent need to:
- Collect reliable and comparable data on this phenomenon.
- Collect reports from abused minors, from professionals without consequences for their employment, from parents and hierarchy for children placed outside their home.
- To train professionals in contact with disabled children to the taking of statements from a minor victim, in the approach to polyhandicap, plurihandicap, overhandicap, multihandicap and to the consequences of violence on the development of children towards adolescence and adulthood.
- To make civil society aware of this issue, a disabled child is a social being in its own right; society must provide him/her with everything possible to be as autonomous as possible, health, education, work, social life…
[i] FRA (2015), Les systèmes de protection de l’enfance dans l’UE (en ligne), http://fra.europa.eu/fr/publications-and-resources/
[ii] La violence à l’égard des enfants handicapés : législation, politiques et programmes dans l’UE(PDF) – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
[iii] Links : UNICEF
1. http://www.who.int/disabilities/publications/dar_world_report_concept_note.pdf
- http://www.unicef-irc.org/cgi-bin/unicef/Lunga.sql?ProductID=474
- https://www.unicef.org/protection/files/CP_Strategy_English(2).pdf
- https://www.unicef.org/french/protection/57929_57987.html
- https://www.unicef.org/french/publications/index_43893.html
- https://www.unicef.org/french/publications/index_50687.html
- http://www.childinfo.org/files/Monitoring_Child_Disability_in_Developing_Countries.pdf
- http://www.unicef-irc.org/cgi-bin/unicef/Lunga.sql?ProductID=474
- http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/387
- https://www.unicef.org/french/protection/57929_58004.html