A space for collaboration, participation, & disability inclusion

ISSUE NO. 2 | July 2026

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The Meeting Place is a brief and accessible selection of recent highlights and opinions, relevant for children with disabilities. Led by Disability Rights International, and in collaboration with the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization (GC-DI) and Lumos Foundation, the initiative works to bring together two global communities: those working on children’s rights and those advancing disability rights. 

IN FOCUS:

Freedom from Violence

In this issue, we spotlight the right to freedom from violence. We will feature voices of survivors and experts by experience, academics and researchers, and outline key considerations, opportunities and resources.

"To end violence against children we must close the doors of institutions and orphanages, and support those who can surround them with love."

- Laurie Ahern, President, Disability Rights International (DRI)

Addressing the violence of institutionalisation at Manila

By Lumos Foundation

There are clear links between violence as a driver of entry into care and as a risk within care systems: Lumos also views the institutionalisation of children as a form of violence itself. However, VAC and care are often considered separately, and children in alternative care are often missing from comprehensive evidence generation and efforts to end violence against children. Cross-sectoral advocacy is crucial to attempt to overcome this divide.

In the lead up to the Second global ministerial conference on EVAC in Manila, now is the time to influence and ensure that the critical intersection of VAC, Care and the rights of children with disabilities is not overlooked!

What being institutionalised taught me about resistance

By Rachel Litchman, on Disability Debrief

Ableism as Violence

An interview with Professor Angharad Beckett, FAcSS, FRSA, Centre for Disability Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds

RIGHTS SPOTLIGHT:

Children's Right to Access to Justice and to an Effective Remedy

By Taiwan Mad Alliance, member of TCI-Global

​​Wang Shiou-Wu, Founder of Taiwan Mad Alliance (TMA) and a TCI Fellow (2025), has made a Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for General Comment No. 27 on Children’s Right to Access to Justice and to an Effective Remedy.

The submission focuses on:

• Ensuring the rights and inclusion of children with disabilities
• Advancing deinstitutionalization and community-based alternatives
• Promoting child-led decision-making and meaningful participation

The submission strongly urges State Parties to fully implement the UN Guidelines on Deinstitutionalisation, to prohibit all forms of forced placement or institutionalization under the guise of “protection”, and to ensure that independent monitoring and access to remedies are available and accessible to all children, especially those with disabilities.

Left to Discretion: Child Victims with Disabilities in the Criminal Justice Systems in Austria, Romania and Serbia

By Validity Foundation and partners

Read more about the Project ENSURE and its outcome documents:

• The ENSURE project's International Synthesis Report looks at the barriers children with disabilities face as victims in the criminal justice systems of Austria, Romania and Serbia.
• The project has also produced a Model Rules-Based Process. This describes three support roles, the Special Representative, the Intermediary and the Support Person, and how each can help child victims with disabilities take part in proceedings and vindicate their right to access to justice.

KEY UPDATES & OPPORTUNITIES

Citizen Data: Disability Leadership in Monitoring Institutions Webinar

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026 

Time: 10am (ET)

Location: Zoom Webinar

Organized by: Disability Rights International (DRI) with support from the International Disability Alliance (IDA)

BACKGROUND

Throughout the world, millions of children and adults are segregated from society in institutions – orphanages, psychiatric hospitals, and other facilities. But government data is notoriously unreliable, and details of conditions in facilities are hard to come by. With support from IDA, DRI is putting on a series of online workshops to encourage and support advocacy groups to obtain documentation of institutional practices.

This introductory webinar addresses the need to monitor by non-governmental organizations, the right to access, and the use of citizen data to hold governments accountable. DRI will host a follow-up on children’s institutions. 

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities holds its 35th Session

BACKGROUND

The 35th Session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is scheduled to take place from 12-27 August 2026 at the Tempus Conference Room at the Palais des Nations. Provisional agenda, Program of work and Information note for stakeholders are available here.

RELEVANT RESOURCES:

Webinar examines overlap between international human right treaties

Protecting the rights of children with disabilities means drawing from the international law and enforcement mechanisms of two different human rights conventions – the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Chaired by UN CRPD Committee member Markus Scheffer at the UN Conference of States Parties, this webinar examines some of the challenges to enforcing rights based on two differing treaties.

Sponsored by the governments of Switzerland, Costa Rica, and New Zealand, the webinar was opened by Urs Germann, Head of the Federal Bureau for the Equality of Persons with Disabilities of Switzerland. He was followed by speakers from the Validity Foundation, the Human Rights Officer of the UN Petitions Unit, Disability Rights International, and Inclusion Handicap Switzerland.

GET INVOLVED:

You can help us advance disability inclusion by:

• Sharing testimonies - contribute personal experiences or examples that highlight barriers, progress, or lived realities of children and adults with disabilities

• Sharing this newsletter with your networks - help expand its reach by circulating it among colleagues, organizations, and communities who are engaged in or can support disability rights



• Proposing topics and content - suggest key issues, emerging trends, or specific areas that should be covered to ensure the newsletter remains relevant and impactful.

This newsletter is published by Disability Rights International with support from Lumos Foundation.

Disability Rights International (DRI) is a human rights advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and full community inclusion of children and adults with disabilities worldwide. DRI’s Worldwide Campaign to End the Institutionalization of Children is dedicated to promoting the recognition and enforcement of the right of all children to live and grow up with a family and not in any form of institution, orphanage, or group home. DRI is one of the founding members of the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization.

Lumos Foundation is an international non-governmental organisation working to realise every child’s right to grow up in a safe and loving family by transforming care systems around the world. Lumos works with governments, civil society, and international organisations to shift away from orphanages and other forms of institutional care towards family-based care and community-based services.

driadvocacy.org