This report follows the visit of a delegation in June 2004, two and a half years following Amnesty International’s first visit to Dzhurkovo, where six children and one 18-year-old died from hypothermia and malnutrition in the winter of 1997. The delegation observed some improvements. However, most of the crucial problems for this institution arise from an insurmountable condition: its remote and wholly inappropriate location. The lack of continuous assessment, treatment and rehabilitation by therapists, psychologists and physicians is profoundly damaging to the children’s development and deprives them of their fundamental right to life with dignity and respect in violation of international human rights standards.
