Orphans of China

The victims are neither the political activists nor the religious dissidents who dominate the international debate over human rights in the People’s Republic; they are orphans and abandoned children in custodial institutions run by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. This report documents the pattern of cruelty, abuse, and malign neglect which has dominated child welfare work in China since the early 1950s, and which now constitutes one of the country’s gravest human rights problems.

Child-care workers reportedly selected unwanted infants and children for death by intentional deprivation of food and water a process known among the workers as the “summary resolution” of childrens’ alleged medical problems. When an orphan chosen in this manner was visibly on the point of death from starvation or medical neglect, orphanage doctors were then asked to perform medical “consultations” which served as a ritual marking the child for subsequent termination of care, nutrition, and other life-saving intervention. Deaths from acute malnutrition were then, in many cases, falsely recorded as having resulted from other causes, often entirely spurious or irrelevant conditions such as “mental deficiency” and “cleft palate.”

Sandra Moats has worked in Chinese orphanages since 1998. "The village orphanages are the worse.  I have been in dying rooms, and dying orphanages.  It is a nightmare that no human should have to live through."

For a more detailed description of human rights abuse in Chinese orphanages visit http://www.hrw.org/summaries/s.china961.html

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