Irish Human Rights Commission Report

Ostrom

Paragraph 92 of the recently published "Assessment of the human rights issues arising in relation to the magdalen laundries";

The IHRC is of the view that the current regime
applying to the provision of information to adopted
persons, including the children of women who resided
in the Magdalen Laundries may not fully vindicate
their rights under the Constitution, the ECHR, and in
the case of children, their rights under the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Sections 80 onwards contain useful summaries of domestic and european legislation, including provisions for access to information, and an interesting comment on equality provisions under the good friday agreement (Section 86).

It seems a precedent could be set if discovery orders were made regarding records of former Magdalen inmates - the report also notes the statutory nature of mother and baby homes under the initial adoption act.

Given that our state trusts the management of a substantial proportion of our education system to religious orders, I find their 'rule of law' opt out f***ing sickening. It is ignorance, hypocrisy - and according to this report, complete falsehood - to suggest the state was not implicated.

Anyone know if any of the adopted people's representative groups have responded yet? Seems like the momentum should be sustained.

kathy finn

first of all can i say that JFM have done a great job, they have worked so hard for the survivors of the magdalen laundries despite the church and state. their ar a lot of people on the JFM committee who also work for the adoption rights groups, both of which ar connected.
JFM have documentation which shows the states involvement in the placeing of girls in the laundries. the last magdalen laundry closed it,s doors in 1996 so this was not happening back in the dark ages. i think for us to go forward we must first try to heal our past......kathy