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Institutional Neglect in Romania’s Long-Term Residential Centers in the 1990s from the Perspective of Children’s Rights

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Child Maltreatment in Residential Care

Abstract

In 1990, Romania signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the rights of children. This created the conditions for the adoption of some measures that lead to the improvement of children’s lives by protecting them against neglect and abuse. This study is the result of a secondary analysis of study data collected in 1999 that focused on neglect and abuse existing in the long-term residential centers of Romania. Our goal was to reconstruct the living conditions of institutionalized children at the end of the 1990s, based on the requirements formulated in the Convention articles. This reconstruction has more than a historical value. It may contribute to our understanding of institutional neglect whose victims were thousands of children who were cared by an inadequate protective system. This analysis included a national representative sample of 3164 (1701 boys and 1463 girls) children residing in 80 different long-term residential centers (i.e., nurseries, centers for preschool and school aged, and institutions for disabled) between 0 and 19 years of age (M = 9.45; SD = 5.39) whose quality of life was measured following the UN Convention vision on the rights of children. The results show that respect of children’s fundamental rights varied within each type of institution. Thus, 9 years after signing the Convention and after 2 years of intense structural reforms, the respect given to the basic human rights of Romanian children placed in long-term residential centers still had many weak points, but included some accomplishments as well.

In determining the scope of children’s rights, ultimately, there are just two questions. First, are children persons deserving of respect? The answer to this question is unequivocally yes … Second, what interests must be protected for a child to be (as a child) and become (as an adult) a meaningful participant in community life and, in so doing, to develop and express her or his unique personality?

Melton (2008), pp. 913–914)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Pediatrics and Obstetrics Research Department, National Institute for Mother and Child Health “Alessandrescu-Rusescu”, B-dul Lacul Tei 120, cod 0209395, Bucharest, Romania

    Ecaterina Stativa

  2. Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Southwestern Christian University, Bethany, OK, USA

    Adrian V. Rus

  3. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Sheri R. Parris

  4. Elite Research, LLC, Irving, TX, 75063, USA

    Jacquelyn S. Pennings

  5. National Institute for Mother and Child Health “Alessandrescu-Rusescu”, Bucharest, Romania

    Oana Clocotici

Authors
  1. Ecaterina Stativa
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  2. Adrian V. Rus
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  3. Sheri R. Parris
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  4. Jacquelyn S. Pennings
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  5. Oana Clocotici
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Correspondence to Ecaterina Stativa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Southwestern Christian University, Bethany, Oklahoma, USA

    Adrian V. Rus

  2. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

    Sheri R. Parris

  3. Social Pediatrics and Obstetrics Research Department, National Institute for Mother and Child Health “Alessandrescu-Rusescu”, Bucuresti, Romania

    Ecaterina Stativa

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Stativa, E., Rus, A.V., Parris, S.R., Pennings, J.S., Clocotici, O. (2017). Institutional Neglect in Romania’s Long-Term Residential Centers in the 1990s from the Perspective of Children’s Rights. In: Rus, A., Parris, S., Stativa, E. (eds) Child Maltreatment in Residential Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57990-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57990-0_2

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