An interim report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the historical abuse of minors in state care estimated that up to 256,000 people were abused between 1950 and 2019. This represents almost 40% of the 655,000 people cared for during this period. .
“The pain and anguish caused in New Zealand history is inexcusable,” said Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins, who described the report as “difficult to read”.
“All children in state care should be safe from any harm, but, as is all too often explained, the truth was the opposite.”
The report said most survivors of the abuse were between 5 and 17 years old, but some were up to 9 months and 20 years old. Most were mistreated over a period of five to ten years.
The abuse included physical assault and sexual abuse, and staff at some psychiatric institutions forced male patients to rape female patients. It also included misuse of medical procedures, such as electric shocks to the genitals and legs, band searches and inappropriate vaginal exams, and verbal abuse and racial insults.
“Sometimes I received shock treatment twice a day,” said Anne, who was 17 at a psychiatric institution in 1979.
“The records (they said) I went blind, and they gave me a shock treatment again that night,” he told the investigation.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Royal Commission in 2018, saying the country had to face a “dark chapter” in its history, and later expanded it to include churches and other religious institutions.
The report states that the probability of children and young people being abused in religious or religious homes ranges from 21% to 42%.
It was found that the number of people passing through welfare institutions was six times higher than previously estimated.
“In any assessment, this is a serious and long-standing social problem that needs to be resolved,” the report said, adding that there was evidence that the abuse continued today.
The report comes after private and public reparation hearings where survivors bravely narrated terrible accounts of physical and sexual abuse.
A Maori survivor, Peter, told the investigation that he drove a car off a cliff in a suicide attempt to escape the abuses.
“I didn’t want to live anymore. I went over a cliff and fell on a bench again. Again, if someone just stopped and looked at why, they would have discovered something, but they didn’t,” he said. . .
The Aotearoa Catholic Church, New Zealand, said it would study the report to learn how to deal with complaints and prevent abuse.
The report acknowledged that indigenous Maori children probably suffered the most, as 81% of abused children are Maori, while 69% of children cared for are Maori.
He said some faith-based institutions tried to “cleanse,” through sexual and physical abuse, the cultural identity of Maori people who are in care.
Thousands of Maori protested in New Zealand last year calling for an end to the practice of removing at-risk children from families and putting them in state care.
Critics of the practice have said the process is racially biased against Maori and is a legacy of colonization.
The Australian neighbor filed a national apology in 2017, after a five-year investigation into child sexual abuse revealed thousands of cases of sexual misconduct committed largely at religious and state institutions.