Washington, DC, July 2023 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), recently held a public hearing on a case filed against the Mexican government by Disability Rights International (DRI) and Georgetown University Law School’s O'Neill Institute, regarding the abuses and torture perpetrated against children and adults – most with developmental disabilities - who are confined indefinitely to the Casa Esperanza Institution in Mexico.  

Celebrating International Day of Disability and the International Children with Disabilities Protection Act

This bill represents everything we’ve been working on for over two decades. All children — especially children with disabilities — need our support to live and grow up in a loving family. And they need protection against being placed in orphanages or other institutions.

—   Laurie Ahern, President, Disability Rights International

Guatemala City, October 13, 2021 - Disability Rights International (DRI) published a report detailing how survivors of the fire and children who were detained at Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion in Guatemala are still at risk. On March 7, 2017, boys and girls protested the physical and sexual abuse, rape and trafficking they suffered at the institution Virgen de la Asunción. As a punishment, the girls who had protested were locked in a tiny auditorium overnight. In the early hours of March 8, a fire broke out and forty-one girls died.

Reflections, practices and call to action in advance of the CRC’s Committee Day of General Discussion on children’s rights and alternative care