Speaking in support of a campaign to change laws that govern youth care facilities in the US, TV star and DJ Paris Hilton has spoken about the alleged abuse she suffered as a teenager.
Hilton first shared her experiences with the 'troubled teen industry' in the YouTube documentary, This Is Paris.
Since its release last year she has been campaigning for safeguarding and reform at residential programmes aimed at troubled teens in the US.
"Today, I come here not as Paris Hilton, but as a survivor": The hotel heiress joined members of Congress on Wednesday in support of legislation aiming to establish a bill of rights for teens in congregate care facilities. pic.twitter.com/amoi9LSykc
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 20, 2021
Speaking in Washington DC at an event with lawmakers and rights advocates on Wednesday, Hilton described how she was sent to four different facilities over a period of two years and that her experiences "still haunt her to this day".
The 40-year-old Simple Life star detailed how she thought she was being kidnapped after she was woken up in the middle of the night by two men entering her bedroom to take her across the country.
Hilton said: "My parents were promised that tough love would fix me and that sending me across the country was the only way."
She alleges that she was physically assaulted, made to take medication and placed in solitary confinement at the residential programmes which were aimed at reforming bad teenage behaviour.
"I was straggled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, not give a proper education, thrown into solitary confinement in a room covered in scratch marks and smeared in blood and so much more."
During her speech at the US Capitol, Hilton urged US President Joe Biden and members of Congress to pass into law the Accountability for Congregate Care Act which would set out a national bill of rights for youth in residential facilities.
She said: "Every day in America, children in congregate care settings are being physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. Children are even dying at the hands of those responsible for their care.
"This bill creates an urgently-needed bill of rights to ensure that every child placed in congregate facilities is provided a safe and humane environment.
"This bill provides protections that I wasn't afforded, like access to education, to the outdoors, freedom from abusive treatment, and even the basic right to speak and move freely.
"If I had these rights and could have exercised them, I would have been saved from over 20 years of trauma and severe PTSD."
Californian Democrat Ro Khanna said he is drafting legislation that will give children in youth facilities the right to call their parents, be free of restraints, and have access to clean drinking water and nutritious meals - none of which are currently mandatory.
