United Nations found out that too many children and adults live in big institutions rather than at home. Many of them live in very bad conditions.  Among these people, there are many babies with disabilities. United Nations wants to stop all governments from putting babies and small children in big institutions.

Brussels, 28 June 2011: Two UN organisations have called on governments in Europe and Central Asia to put an immediate end to the practice of placing young children into State-run infant homes. Following the release of two new reports which document violations and abuses of children in state-run homes, OHCHR ad UNICEF today launched a campaign to end the practice of sending children under the age of three into state-run institutional care.

The reports revealed that across Europe and Central Asia, including inside the European Union, more than a million children and adults are living in long-term residential care, where they languish - often for a lifetime. The reports state that hundreds of thousands of babies with disabilities are routinely placed in state-run homes, severely hampering their development. Many suffer in appalling conditions.

At a meeting in the European Parliament hosted by Irish MEP Mairead McGuiness, the organisations urged governments across the region to make the needs and rights of the youngest children a priority in policymaking, budget allocation and services development, while following international and European standards. This call to action includes restricting placement of children to short-time emergency measures or a planned stay not exceeding six months - and then only when it is absolutely necessary and in the best interest of the child. You can consult a call to action brochure here.

Compelling evidence to support the call is detailed in the reports:

Forgotten Europeans - Forgotten Rights published by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) outlines international and European human rights standards relevant to the situation of persons in institutions (institutional care, deinstitutionalisation and alternative care); and

At Home or in a Home - Formal care and adoption of children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, published by UNICEF provides an overview of the major trends and concerns about children in formal care and institutions as well as adoption in 21 countries and one entity in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia including Romania and Bulgaria.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake urged governments in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia to reform child welfare policies that undermine children's rights and wellbeing. "Children belong where their best interests are met - in loving, caring homes, not in institutions where we know they all too often receive substandard care," said Lake. "We need to support intiatives that help families to stay together by increasing their access to social services - and governments need to invest in building stronger social protection systems that reach the most vulnerable families and most disadvantaged communities."

Jan Jarab, Regional Representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Regional Office for Europe said,: Many Central and Eastern European countries have largely maintained the system of large-scale residential institutions for children of all ages. Placement of children into institutions - including those under 3 years of age - is still the society's main response to disability, poverty or perceived lack of parental skills rather than a measure of protection from individual abuse, from which these societies often fail to protect children. Those CEE countries which are members of the EU should stop using the European Structural Funds to reinforce their child care systems in their current form. They should instead use the Funds to launch fundamental reform of their systems of child protection and care."