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Undercover Investigation Finds Czech Children Still Languish Behind Caged Beds
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 17, 2008

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC--A new hidden camera investigation by the BBC has found that institutions in the Czech Republic are continuing to use caged beds for children with intellectual and physical disabilities, more than a year after their use was banned.

The undercover reporters found that five of eight facilities they visited kept many children in beds surrounded with six-foot high bars, obviously designed to keep the children from climbing out.

But the country's social affairs minister, Petr Necas, argued that the beds are "completely normal" if the child's doctor and guardian agree to their use.

The use of caged beds on such children has been a point of controversy for the country since the fall of the Soviet Union and its own efforts to join the European Union.

A 2003 report by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center called on the Czech government to put and end to the use of cage beds in the republic's psychiatric institutions and social care homes.

"The psychological impact of having such a bed is negative and that's why anyone concerned with the rights of the child would recommend very highly against it," Thomas Hammarberg, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, told the BBC this week.

"Hopefully they'll have a child-rights-oriented approach in the future," he said of Czech officials.

Related:
"Filming reveals Czech children still caged" (BBC News)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7189556.stm
"Czech anger at caged beds report" (BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7194443.stm
"Czech Republic: Advocates Fight For Children To Be Freed From Caged Beds" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/cz/czechrep.htm

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