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THE IRISH BRANCH of Amnesty International has called on the State to accept its role in the human rights abuses that occurred at the Magdalene Laundries.
The call came after the official report of an Inter-Departmental Committee discovered that the State had an active role in the admission of 2,124 women to Magdalene Laundries from 1922 onwards.
“The State must now finally accept its own role in what the report reveals,” Amnesty International Ireland director Colm O’Gorman said this afternoon.
“It is has ducked and denied its responsibility for what happened to these women and children, including to the UN Committee Against Torture, for far too long.”
O’Gorman said the scale of human rights abuses revealed in the report demanded “urgent action” from the government, and called for an immediate apology to the victims – with reparations to be paid accordingly.
“A fully independent investigation into the allegations of arbitrary detention, forced labour and ill-treatment that took place in the Magdalene laundries must be set up as soon as possible,” he said.
Justice must be done. The perpetrators must be identified and prosecuted.
He added that any delay to such an investigation, or an apology, risked the possibility that more survivors of the Magdalene Laundries would die without ever seeing justice.
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Apologize??? Prison is too good for the colluders … Past and present Government party TDs who were TDs prior to 1996 should all face court. They do not deserve to be allowed to roam the streets freely, as far as I am concerned.
How many TD’S would have been aware and silent on this? Another grim day for our supposed Republic. The last one closed in 1996. Still a theocracy. Makes the rant at the vatican ring hollow. Sorry does not cut it.
The Irish state has been found to have colluded with 4 orders of a religious sect in the wrongful incarceration of thousands of innocent women and children. The Irish state and it’s politicians, police and others are quite simply, complicit in crimes against humanity. All of those who served in govt. before 1996 should be held to account for these crimes, so too should the religious orders, their bishops, priests, nuns and any of the lay people who conducted the everyday operations of these slave camps. It is not good enough for the likes of Kenny to just turn around and apologise for the harsh conditions in a harsh country in which these women and children were held, that is simply not going to wash. There has to be accountability this time, prosecutions MUST take place, religious orders MUST be made to pay for their crimes and those who ordered the detentions be they dead or alive must also pay the price for their illegal actions against the innocent victims of this heinous episode in Irish history. The evidence of what happened is there for all to see, what more does Kenny need? These victims have suffered long enough the people of Ireland MUST insist that they are now given justice, recompense and above all an apology that means something, this is a national disgrace, a shameful and a grotesque failure of common humanity by a state to it’s own people, the most vulnerable of whom were children and disabled citizens who should have been looked after by the state, not handed over to religious thugs and barbarians who sought to dehumanise them and use them as slaves so they could profit from their unpaid labour, or to be sold abroad to fill the coffers of the despicable orders who saw nothing wrong with selling human beings. The UN, Amnesty, the EU, the European Court of Human Rights all need to involved in setting up a fully independent investigation of what has happened to these women and children with the religious orders involved and every politician, police officer, civil servant or ‘suit’ involved investigated for their actions or inactions and made to testify under subpoena if need be so that the truth can be revealed and the victims finally given the justice they are entitled too.
So you want a investigation into the investigation?
I agree with you Ed. I’ve said all along that The E.U. court of Human rights, Amnesty International the UN should get involved.
Is it possible that the E.U. could slap sanctions on Ireland if Ireland doesn’t pay attention to eg: the x case
and all the outrageous things that have taken place recently.?
A whitewash, this is dancing on their graves, justice my arshe
No have you not read the previous article – Enda must read the report in full before commenting on it and then discuss it in 2 weeks time, that’s how our dear Taoiseach doesn’t get things done
It’s a 1000 pages or so; that’s not an easy thing to digest in a matter of hours
Fair comment if he had no political flunkies to assist him identify the essential points.
Strong photographic image but conveys the truth. In my work Ive had to study such reports and have professionally come across many forms of abuse still inflicted on children today. Though the State are learning. Albeit in the capacity that it doesn’t want to fork out financial recompense. Let us never forget the sins of the past so that they never be repeated.
I would inbrace a look at abuse of children in national schools in the 80 s. Mainly physlcal and verbal. This is an issue that has gone unaddressed. Just interested to see people opioion. Thanks
Kids today are still abused in Catholic schools for not conforming to bullying or perhaps because they are LGBT. Really sad.
I demand the State takes full responsibility for the abuse of human rights suffered by these poor women .
Typical Church power over people that is now at an end.
NEVER AGAIN .
I don’t think he’s going to find a loophole even if he actually reads all 1000 pages himself. why delay an apology? It’s textbook arse covering… and another massive slap in the face to all the tens of thousands of women who suffered at the hands of the nuns. As I mentioned in another comment – I think the mega rich church should compensate the victims… I would forgive the state for passing them the bill.
Yes, the Church is mega rich. They should foot the bill for compensation for all these poor women. If they object
The government should take away their property and put it in a kitty to compensate these sad women.
@ Anita, well said.
Even the Church should not be permitted falsely to imprison people and exploit them as slave labour.
This is really no surprise – the church WAS the state in those days, they’re all as responsible as each other.
Why do we have to listen to amnesty about this report? Why can’t we just read the report by itself?
@ Declan Noonan, some of us will not read the entire Report and it is useful to get an over view and a human rights perspective. The Report may be factual, although based on my reading so far, the facts of physical abuse have not properly addressed. The evaluation and human rights perspective by Amnesty International was very useful.
I have downloaded the Report and I must say that a lot of the personal accounts are heart breaking.
Peter, I hear you. I just want to hear from the survivors. Amnesty never did the report in the first place. It’s like getting news second hand.
To the red thumb brigade, let me emphasize that I want to hear from the survivors and to read the report by itself.
have your say