Kids With No Name: Kazakh Lawyer Describes Horrific Plight Of Children With Special Needs
Kazakhstan's state-run centers for children with special needs are being described by activists as "the place no one would have stayed" if they had a choice.
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Kazakh activist and attorney Aigul Shakibaeva told RFE/RL after visiting several of the state-run facilities that children are being dehumanized by horrific living conditions.
"Instead of their own names, children have numbers on their beds and clothes," said Shakibaeva, a lawyer for the nonprofit Commission To Defend the Rights of People With Special Needs.
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"The moment you enter the wards for children with mental disabilities in any Kazakh province, you see a scary situation," she says. "Children are medicated with psychotropic drugs. Their tongues are sticking out and their eyes are out of focus."
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Parents often decide to abandon babies with disabilities before leaving hospital maternity wards, signing away their parental rights when they discover their newborn is disabled.
https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-special-needs-children-lawyer-shakibaeva-horrific-plight-human-rights-watch/30682716.html
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