'100 years of injustice': Survivors call for mother and baby home redress scheme

Started by Pipsqueak, Sep 19, 2022, 05:00 PM

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Pipsqueak

https://www.thejournal.ie/mother-and-baby-homes-redress-protest-5865915-Sep2022/?fbclid=IwAR3BGD8nIX8TTRzG-aWXJneD3LhigONWuJt_8oH1OpLb2eDUdgHXrHN9oBY

'100 years of injustice': Survivors call for mother and baby home redress scheme to be extended
"Violation of human rights could become a thorn in the side of this Government."

Thu 6:31 AM

SURVIVORS OF MOTHER and baby homes and other institutions have called for the Government's redress scheme to be extended to include all people who spent time in the system.  Several survivors and campaigners held a protest outside Leinster House in Dublin this afternoon.  In recent months there has been much criticism of the fact the planned scheme excludes people who were boarded out, a precursor to fostering, and those who spent less than six months in an institution as a child.  The United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Oireachtas Children's Committee are among the high-profile groups calling for the scheme to be extended.  People who receive redress under the scheme will also have to sign a waiver saying they will not take future legal action against the State.  The UN Human Rights Committee and the Oireachtas Children's Committee have also both called for this waiver to be scrapped, saying that survivors should be able to take legal action if they see fit.  As previously reported by The Journal, a number of survivors are considering legal action if they remain excluded from the scheme.  James Sugrue, co-organiser of today's protest, was abused and neglected while boarded out as a child. He is among those excluded from the current scheme.  Speaking at today's protest, Sugrue said: "It's a day when all survivors of the State and Church should unite whether from mother and baby homes, industrial schools, Magdalene Laundries, county homes, boarded out, fostered or adopted.  We have all experienced pain and suffering, violations of human rights, as a result of the State's malpractice in the administration and supervision of the numerous State-run institutions.  Some of the worst abuse'

Sugrue noted the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found that "some children who were boarded out experienced some of the worst abuse".

Quoting Professor Conor O'Mahony, the former Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Sugrue told the crowd: "The fact that it could cost a substantial sum of money is absolutely no defence.  If you don't want to compensate someone for violating that human rights, don't violate violate their human rights in the first place."

He added: "Violation of human rights could become a thorn in the side of this Government."

Sugrue previously told The Journal that if the redress scheme is not extended to include all survivors, a new inquiry may need to be established to examine the experiences of people who were boarded out as children.