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ICCL to Senators: Adoption Information and Tracing Bill fails to vindicate rights of adoptees

Dublin, 13 June

Yesterday morning ICCL sent the following email to all Senators in advance of the Seanad debate on the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016.

From: Liam Herrick
Sent: 12 June 2019 11:04
To: senators@oir.ie
Subject: ICCL Position on Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill – this afternoon

Dear Senators,

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) shares the concerns of the Adoption Rights Alliance, and Dr. Maeve O’Rourke with regard to the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, which will be before the Seanad this afternoon.

We note that you have already received detailed submissions on the Bill from both the Alliance and Dr. O’Rourke, which ICCL endorses.

ICCL is  particularly concerned that the Bill (and the newly introduced Governments Amendments) will:

  1. Fail to vindicate the human rights of adopted persons to effectively access information about their identity; and
  2. Potentially lead to further violations of the privacy rights of adopted persons.

The proposed amendments remove the obligation on adopted persons to sign an undertaking before seeking information about their identity. This will have some positive effects, including in cases where the natural parents are deceased.

However, the proposed amendments would instead establish a process of searching for, notifying, and giving a right to object, to any natural parents of that adopted person before any information can be disclosed. This constitutes a disproportionate and unjustified obstacle to access to personal information. In practice, we believe such a scheme will lead to unworkable delays in accessing information – e.g. it is not clear what level of obligation will be on Tusla to take steps to locate natural parents, or within what time frame.

It is not clear that the proposed system of hearings and appeals where a parent resists an application for information is compatible with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation relating to the right to access personal data.

More fundamentally, this approach places the rights of the natural parent on a higher footing than the rights of the adopted person. The adopted person would have no discretion about their natural parent being informed about a request for information (violating their right to privacy), but the parent would have a say about the release of that information – information that is essentially the personal data of the adoptee.

The Government claims that its approach is based on “legal advice”, but fails to outline to the Oireachtas what law(s) it is relying on. ICCL believes that the approach being taken is informed by an over-emphasis on the privacy rights of natural parents and a disregard for the rights to respect for private and family life of the adopted persons.

ICCL believes that this Bill presents an an important opportunity to address an urgent and ongoing human rights violation – one affecting many thousands of Irish people. However, we believe that the approach being taken by the Government is flawed and we would ask you to consider carefully amendments being tabled which will address the defects we set out above, and those identified by the Adoption Rights Alliance and Dr. Maeve O’Rourke.

This email has been updated from its original version.

Find out more about ICCL’s work on transitional justice for ‘historic’ abuse.

ICCL publishes follow-up report to UN Committee Against Torture

ICCL Follow-up report to UNCAT

This report by the ICCL was submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) on 26 November 2018 and forms part of the process of ‘follow-up’ to the CAT’s second set of Concluding Observations on Ireland, published in August 2017. The CAT designated three of the recommendations in its August 2017 Concluding Observations as ‘follow-up’ issues, requiring a response from the Irish Government within one year.

In this report, the ICCL:

  1. Demands that Ireland ratify the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and create a National Preventive Mechanism that independently inspects all places of detention in Ireland, including de facto detention in health and social care settings, and in Direct Provision.
  2. Calls for swift changes to the powers and functions of the Garda complaints mechanism, and criticises the secrecy that characterises many investigations into alleged Garda misconduct.
  3. Rejects the Government’s repeated claim that it knows of ‘no credible evidence’ that systematic torture or ill-treatment, or criminal abuse, was perpetrated in Magdalene Laundries and calls for a truth-telling process, and proper accountability and redress.

The ICCL’s report to the CAT in 2017 contributed to the CAT’s Concluding Observations along with the reports of numerous other NGOs working in Ireland.

 

The Irish Government’s Follow-up Report to the CAT was published in August 2018. This report by the ICCL provides further information to the CAT in relation to the three ‘follow-up’ issues.

ICCL welcomes government decision to excavate grave at Tuam

Dublin, 23 October 2018

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has welcomed the announcement by the government to implement a multi-disciplinary framework, known as “humanitarian forensic action”, in order to identify the remains of those buried in an unmarked grave at the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.

ICCL director Liam Herrick said:

“This is the only appropriate response possible by the State, given that the human rights violations against former residents of these mother and baby homes are ongoing. There are still people who are searching for information on what happened to their loved ones and those people have a right to that information, as well as to the broader truth of how the system operated”.

In August, ICCL said that the system of forcibly separating unmarried mothers from their children and of burying infants in unmarked graves could constitute a system of enforced disappearances, widely considered one of the gravest possible human rights violations. We called on the State to ensure that family members of children who were forcibly disappeared, either through forced adoption or unidentified burials while in institutional care, were given information about the children’s fate and whereabouts.

We today reiterate this call to provide rights to information to all those who survived this cruel and inhumane system. This means that the bodies of children in the Tuam grave must be exhumed and identified to the extent possible, and that all possible information about their circumstances of death given to their family members. It means that the Government must introduce legislation to provide explicit rights to personal files for adopted people, natural parents, all individuals who experienced institutional abuse, and the family members of those who died in institutions. The Government should also move to create an independent national archive of administrative records, personal records and witness testimony relating to the system of forced family separation in Ireland.

We reiterate our call on the Government to ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it has already signed but not yet ratified.

Enforced disappearance is recognised as a crime against humanity when widespread or systematic. Under international law, an enforced disappearance occurs when a person is detained or abducted with the involvement of the State, following which the State refuses to disclose their fate or whereabouts. It is unique in international law in that it is considered an ongoing crime until family members have been informed by the State as to the fate and whereabouts of their relative. Last year a European Parliament Committee recognised that a similar system in Spain – that of the ‘stolen babies’ – constituted a crime against humanity.

ENDS/

For comment:

Liam Herrick: liam.herrick@iccl.ie 087 2351374

For media queries:

Sinéad Nolan: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie 087 4157162

Notes for editors:

The United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, UNGA Res 47/133 (1 December 1992) UN Doc A/RES/47/133 (http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/47/a47r133.htm) explains that ‘enforced disappearances’ occur when

‘persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law’.

According to the UN Committee Against Torture, redress for crimes against humanity requires restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and the right to the truth, and guarantees of non-repetition. The UN Committee Against Torture General Comment No 3 on redress:

‘Implementation of article 14 by States parties’ (13 December 2012) UN Doc CAT/C/GC/3 para 2. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5437cc274.html

 

NWCI and ICCL call on Dublin City Council to stop the sale of the former Magdalene Laundry

Dublin, 3 September 2018.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) have today called on Dublin City Councillors to support the motion to stop the sale of the former Magdalene Laundry site on Sean McDermott St. The motion is on the agenda for Monday 3 September 2018.

 

Orla O’Connor, Director of NWCI said,

“The Sean McDermott St site, which only ceased operating as a Magdalene laundry in 1996, is the last laundry in State ownership. To honour the women who were failed so badly by Church and State, and to ensure that history is never allowed to repeat itself, NWCI and ICCL is calling on Dublin City Council to stop the sale of this site, and to ensure that it is turned into a centre of education and commemoration, in accordance with the wishes of surviving Magdalene women. The building of this centre should not preclude the building of social housing units on the site also.”

 

Orla O’Connor continued,

“The treatment of our most vulnerable citizens in Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, industrial schools and reformatory schools, represents a deep stain on our past and has left deep trauma and scars for many women and families throughout Ireland. A crucial component of ensuring access to justice for survivors of Magdalene laundries, and indeed, survivors of all of Ireland’s State funded, Church run institutions, is ensuring a commemorative and educational centre. The Sean McDermott St laundry is a poignant and fitting site for such a commemorative centre.”

 

Liam Herrick, Director ICCL said,

“In spite of repeated recommendations from the United Nations Commission Against Torture (UNCAT) that the Irish State should undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into ill treatment of girls and women at the Magdalene Laundries, there are no plans for this investigation currently. There have also been failings around promoting greater access to archival information regarding the Magdalene Laundries, and around fully implementing the outstanding recommendations of Mr Justice Quirke regarding services for survivors. Indeed, the first recommendation of the Ryan Commission was a memorial to those abused in residential schools, which has never happened.”

In NWCI AND ICCL, we call on Dublin City Council to stand in solidarity with all those who were forcibly incarcerated and abused in Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes and all Irish institutions, and ensure that we begin to finally face our shameful past.

ICCL: Tuam and adoption scandals may involve enforced disappearances

30 August 2018

On UN International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has called on the State to ensure that family members of children who were forcibly disappeared, either through forced adoption or unidentified burials while in institutional care, are given information about the children’s fate and whereabouts.

Enforced disappearance is widely considered one of the gravest possible human rights violations, and is recognised in international law as a crime against humanity when widespread or systematic. Under international law, an enforced disappearance occurs when a person is detained or abducted with the involvement of the State, following which the State refuses to disclose their fate or whereabouts.

Director of ICCL, Liam Herrick, said:

“The State-sponsored system of forcibly separating unmarried mothers and their children during the 20th century appears to ICCL to involve ‘enforced disappearance’, one of the gravest violations of European and international human rights law. Last year a European Parliament Committee recognised that a similar system in Spain – that of the ‘stolen babies’ – constitutes crimes against humanity. Ireland needs to wake up to the seriousness of what is at stake.”

ICCL is calling on the State to provide statutory rights to information to all those who survived the Irish system, including all people who were forcibly separated from their family members through the closed, secret adoption system in Ireland, as well as the family members of children who died in institutional care. This means that the bodies of children in the Tuam grave must be exhumed, identified, and all possible information about their circumstances of death given to their family members.

Mr. Herrick said:

“It is simply not good enough that Galway County Council conducted a straw poll as to what should be done in the Tuam case, including the option of simply covering over the site and placing a memorial there. The State is obliged to identify the children’s bodies, to conduct a full public investigation, and to provide guarantees that nothing like this can ever happen again.

We know that there are mass unmarked graves of children in places other than Tuam. We have heard adopted people and many others who were forcibly separated from their family members call repeatedly for information about what happened to them and to their relatives. Full disclosure of information is required. The secrecy must stop and the State must recognise its human rights obligations towards all of these individuals.”

ICCL is also calling on the government to ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it has already signed but not yet ratified.

Enforced disappearance is unique in international law in that it is considered an ongoing crime until family members have been informed by the State as to the fate and whereabouts of their relative.

ENDS/

Notes for editors:

The United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, UNGA Res 47/133 (1 December 1992) UN Doc A/RES/47/133 (http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/47/a47r133.htm) explains that ‘enforced disappearances’ occur when

‘persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law’.

According to the UN Committee Against Torture, redress for crimes against humanity requires restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and the right to the truth, and guarantees of non-repetition. The UN Committee Against Torture General Comment No 3 on redress:

‘Implementation of article 14 by States parties’ (13 December 2012) UN Doc CAT/C/GC/3 para 2. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5437cc274.html

For media queries:

Sinéad Nolan: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie 087 4157162

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ICCL calls on State to provide information and records to all affected by forced and illegal adoption

Dublin, 30 May 2018

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today welcomes the decision of Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, to establish a process of investigation into illegal adoptions where adoptive parents were registered as natural or birth parents on the child’s birth certificate. We also welcome the Minister’s explicit recognition of the information and identity rights of people who have been adopted and agree that “people have the right to know of their true origins”.

We call on the Government to acknowledge fully the rights, particularly the right to information, of all people affected by Ireland’s system of forced and illegal adoption. This includes natural or birth parents, adopted people, and other family members of people forcibly separated through Mother and Baby Homes, adoption agencies, maternity hospitals, Magdalene Laundries and other institutions.

Director of ICCL, Liam Herrick, said:

“At present, the State is refusing to provide these individuals with information about their own identities, the circumstances of their separation, the whereabouts of their relatives who disappeared, and the system of forced separation of mothers and children that caused widespread and grave human rights violations from the foundation of the State until the 1990s.”

We note that Tusla has transferred records of illegal adoptions to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. ICCL has previously argued that the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 is not a suitable mechanism for providing information to people whose rights have been violated. The Commission is limited to investigating a small fraction of the institutions and agencies involved in separating women and their children, and it has refused to hold public hearings. Witnesses to the Commission are not allowed to have a transcript of their evidence, and it is a criminal offence for any person to publish evidence given to the Commission in private. The evidence being gathered by the Commission is not available to those who are affected by the issues, nor is the evidence admissible in later civil or criminal proceedings. The Commission is immune from individuals’ ordinary right of access to their own data under the Data Protection Acts, and it is also immune from the application of the Freedom of Information Acts.

Mr. Herrick continued:

“In addition to the secrecy of the Commission of Investigation’s process, adopted people do not have a statutory right to their own birth certificate or to the records relating to their early life, adoption or medical records. Mothers and other relatives are unable to discover what became of their family members. In this way, the abuses of the past are continuing. They are not ‘historic’.”

ICCL has raised the State’s continuing denial of information rights with several international human rights bodies, including most recently the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children. We call on the State to implement the repeated recommendations of human rights bodies to ensure that all those affected by the past system of forced and illegal separation and adoption are provided with information, as a crucial part of redress.

Read more about our work on historic abuse here

Notes to editors:
In July 2017, the UN Committee Against Torture made the following recommendations regarding the system of forced and illegal adoptions in its Concluding Observations on Ireland’s second periodic report to the Committee:
Accountability for past institutional abuses: Mother and Baby Homes
  1. While the Committee appreciates the State party’s creation of a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in February 2015, it is concerned at reports that its terms of reference do not allow it to investigate all institutions in the country at which abuses, including forced and illegal adoptions, may have occurred and that following the expected conclusion of the Commission’s work in February 2018, its archives will be closed and will not be made available to the public (arts. 2, 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16).
  2. The State party should ensure that it carries out an independent, thorough and effective investigation into any allegations of ill-treatment, including cases of forced adoption, amounting to violations of the Convention at all of the Mother and Baby Homes and analogous institutions, that perpetrators of any such acts are prosecuted and punished and that all victims of violations of the Convention obtain redress. The State party should ensure that information concerning abuses in these institutions are made accessible to the public to the greatest extent possible.
In May 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio visited Ireland and commented following her visit:
“The so-called historic abuses against children that took place in Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and industrial schools, among other settings, have a direct bearing on the Ireland of today. More remains to be done to provide sufficient information, justice and redress to those who suffered child sexual abuse and forced labour, or who were victims of illegal adoptions during dark periods of Irish history,” said Ms de Boer-Buquicchio.
“Accounting for these past abuses is a crucial step towards the future.”
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