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https:// www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105158507/survivor-group-alleges-govt-breached-human-rights-with-state-abuse-royal-commission
Survivor group alleges Govt breached human rights with state abuse Royal Commission
A child abuse survivor group has called for United Nations intervention over the Government's possible exclusion of churches from its state abuse inquiry.
Occulo New Zealand, a group set up with the goal of ending abuse by clergy, believes the New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care does not comply with the 1989 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The group submitted an urgent "letter of allegation" to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Sunday. It said the New Zealand Government was "in breach of this fundamental and internationally important" treaty, which it ratified in 1993.
Occulo had compiled a list of information it believed the UN required to be able to act, including a "conservative" estimate of the number of victims at risk of missing a chance to have their voices heard and bring perpetrators to justice.
"[There are] potentially thousands of victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by faith groups in New Zealand [that have] occurred in the last 60-plus years," it read.
The Royal Commission's draft terms of reference were until recently up for consultation. They were limited to people whom the state was responsible for, "whether directly or indirectly".
Advocates and abuse survivors have criticised what they see as the inquiry's limited scope, by its failure to include faith-based institutions, sporting clubs and schools by default. Many do not believe this will be remedied in the final terms of reference.
"We're waiting for the inevitable. The inevitable's going to be … we'll get the short end of the stick," said a spokesman for Occulo, which is Latin for cover-up.
"We'll be the only English-speaking country [to have had an independent inquiry into child abuse] … that's not including faith-based institutions. It's bizarre."
In Australia alone, nearly 4500 people reported being abused by Catholic institutions during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which ended in December.
Last year, Australian Royal Commission adviser Gary Foster said the final report stood "a metre-and-a-half high".
"The recommendation on the criminal justice system alone runs to over 2000 pages, with over 85 recommendations which will significantly change our criminal justice system.
Male Survivors Aotearoa national advocate Ken Clearwater has been fighting for an independent inquiry since 2004 when he first asked then-Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said no, before writing to every member of the Labour Party of the time.
Other supporters of a Royal Commission that includes faith-based institutions have been frequent and vocal, including the likes of survivor Darryl Smith, who last month released a book about his experiences.
It also extended to members of religious institutions themselves, with the Catholic Church National Office for Professional Standards Bill Kilgallon last year explaining why he thought his institution should be involved in the inquiry.
Human rights lawyer Craig Tuck said UN processes were "so slow that the Royal Commission will be wrapping up its findings by the time the UN starts processing this in any meaningful way".
He said the Occulo complaint raised "a whole raft of interesting issues" around how state care was defined by the Royal Commission – whether it stopped at Government-run institutions, state-funded care or simply "state-allowed care".
"I guess, from an initial viewpoint, that the state is implicated if it's funded or allowed, or [has] even remained silent when there was abuse, or it knowingly was occurring.
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