The UN Committee Against Torture
wrote to the Government last month asking for information as to
measures the State was planning to take “to ensure there is a full
inquiry into all complaints of abuse”, as the committee had originally
recommended.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
apologised to women who had spent time in Magdalene laundries after the
inquiry, chaired by former senator Martin McAleese, found that the
State played a significant role in sending thousands of young women to
the institutions.
However, groups representing the women
believe the report did not fully capture the prevalence of abuse and
ill-treatment in the laundries.
In a letter to the Irish Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Gerard Corr,
the torture committee said it had received information from several
sources highlighting that the McAleese report, despite its length and
detail, “did not conduct a fully independent investigation into
allegations of arbitrary detention, forced labour or ill-treatment”.
Survivor testimony
The committee had also received information that the State was presented with extensive survivor testimony in the form of reports by the Justice for Magdalenes group “and was aware of the existence of possible criminal wrongdoings, including physical and psychological abuse”.
In the letter, dated May 22nd, Felice Gaer,
rapporteur for follow-up on concluding observations at the committee,
wrote: “With these factors in mind, the committee would appreciate
further information as to the measures the State party is planning to
take to ensure that there is a full inquiry into all complaints of
abuse, in accordance with the committee’s original recommendation.”
The Government responded to the McAleese report in February by asking the president of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Justice John Quirke,
to recommend how it should assess financial and other types of support
it can provide to the women.
It is understood his report has been
delivered to the Department of Justice and a fund is expected to be set
up on foot of it.
On the issue of redress, the UN
committee asked the Government to clarify how it intended to ensure
that the proposed fund would be primarily used to help victims and
survivors rather than being used to cover legal or administrative costs.
It added: “What measures are being put in place to help
institutionalised survivors to engage with the redress processes?”
The
committee said it was also concerned that the work of Mr Justice Quirke
was “premised on the incomplete investigations carried out by the
McAleese committee”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio
yesterday, Ms Gaer said that while the committee was pleased to see the
Government set up an inquiry and apologise to the women, the McAleese
report did not constitute “an independent investigation in all ways”.
She
said the McAleese inquiry, while headed by “an extremely well-regarded
and independent individual”, comprised civil servants drawn from
Government departments whose involvement in the Magdalene laundries was
under examination.
‘Limited inquiry’
Ms Gaer pointed to the fact that the inquiry was empowered to ask only for the voluntary submission of information and that there were no public hearings. “From our point of view, it was a limited inquiry,” she added.
Claire
McGettrick of Justice for Magdalenes said it shared many of the
concerns raised by the UN committee.
The group had submitted 796 pages
of testimony to the inquiry team, but “not one syllable” drawn from
those documents appeared in the final report.
“The
McAleese report should not have gone as far as alleging that there was
little abuse in the laundries because that’s simply not true,” she said.
“The survivor testimony is absolutely consistent over decades.”