Press release, for immediate release
Dublin, Tuesday 5 February 2013
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has today (5 February 2013) called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to issue a full and frank apology on behalf of the State to the women of the Magdalene laundries.
The ICCL made the call in anticipation of the publication later today of the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee Investigating State Involvement with the Magdalene Laundries, which is chaired by Senator Martin McAleese.
Speaking in advance of the report’s release, ICCL Director Mr Mark Kelly said:
“We anticipate that Dr McAleese’s report will document a complex web of direct State involvement in the Magdalene laundries. For this, the women who suffered in those institutions deserve a full apology at the highest political level”.
“The State should never have allowed the Magdalene laundries to exist. It was the State’s responsibility to prevent the indentured servitude and unlawful incarceration of these women and girls, to whom it owed a duty of care. It failed in this responsibility, and the ICCL believes that there is compelling evidence of State acquiescence and active complicity in the Laundries system.”
“Enda Kenny is a man who knows a sincere apology when he hears one. In July 2011, the Taoiseach declared that this is not ‘industrial-school or Magdalene Ireland, where the swish of a soutane smothered conscience and humanity’ and called for ‘a Republic of laws…..of rights and responsibilities….of proper civic order….. where the delinquency and arrogance of a particular version….. of a particular kind of ‘morality’….. will no longer be tolerated or ignored’. It would be deeply ironic if he were not to rise to the occasion today by offering a full and frank apology to the Magdalene women in the Dáil”.
For further information contact:
Walter Jayawardene
Communications Manager
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
9-13 Blackhall Place
Dublin 7
Ireland
Tel. + 353 1 799 4503
Mob: +353 87 9981574
Fax. + 353 1 799 4512
E-mail walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie
Web www.iccl.ie
Note to editors:
• The report of the Inter-Departmental Committee Investigating State Involvement with the Magdalene Laundries, chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, will be published at 4pm today (5 February 2013) by the Department of Justice.
• The Inter-Departmental Committee was set up following Ireland’s formal examination by the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) on 23-24 May 2011. The question of State responsibility for the treatment of women in the Magdalene laundries from 1922 – 1996 was one of the major issues that arose during the examination. During the UNCAT hearings the Irish Government was subject to searching questions by UN Committee members, particularly by member Ms Felice Gaer, who questioned Government claims that the laundries were not the responsibility of the state, and that inmates went there voluntarily. Ms Gaer also underlined the State’s obligation to prevent rights abuses such as those committed in the Magdalene Laundries, regardless of whether or not they were State-run.
• The ICCL and Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) arranged a live webcast of the UNCAT hearing on 23-24 May 2011. Footage is still available in full, in three recorded segments, at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14908354. Footage of Felice Gaer’s specific comments about the Magdalene Laundries can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YsUMPiFjUuk (at 48 seconds).
• The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is Ireland’s leading independent human rights watchdog, which monitors, educates and campaigns in order to secure full enjoyment of human rights for everyone. The ICCL is an entirely independent organisation and does not rely on government support or funding. Founded in 1976 by Mary Robinson and others, the ICCL has played a leading role in some of Ireland’s most successful human rights campaigns. These have included campaigns to establish an independent Garda Ombudsman Commission, legalise the right to divorce, secure more effective protection of children’s rights, decriminalise homosexuality and introduce enhanced equality legislation. Since 1976 the ICCL has tirelessly lobbied the State to ensure the full implementation in Ireland of international human rights standards.