Friday, November 25, 2016

Child abuse report 'shut down by '@chrisfinlaysonMP because the abuse was so shocking it would harm the @NZNational party

A former Human Rights Commissioner is accusing the government of killing off a critical report on the way it handled hundreds of cases of children abused in state care.
The report was written when Ros Noonan was Chief Human Rights Commissioner in 2011.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford said he and a team of lawyers found the report's conclusions were legally flawed. Photo: 123RF
It was never published because, she says, the Attorney General Chris Finlayson did not like its recommendations.
Many children in state care between the 1950s and 1980s suffered abuse and neglect that scarred them for life.
In 2009 the UN Committee Against Torture raised concerns about how New Zealand handled historic abuse claims. In 2011 the Human Rights Commission launched a review.
Ms Noonan said the draft report recommended an independent inquiry be set up. She did not think the Ministry for Social Development was impartial enough to handle victim's complaints.
Attorney General Chris Finlayson replied in a letter that he disagreed and the ministry was fair and impartial.
Ms Noonan believed Mr Finlayson was motivated by fears an independent inquiry would expose the government to liability.
"My clear impression is that he was trying to shut down the inquiry and the report. I think, clearly, he was concerned there would be a public interest in there being an independent inquiry and the government didn't want that."
Ms Noonan, who is the director of the Human Rights Centre at Auckland University Law School, was angered by Mr Finlayson's response - and that the report was not published.
"It's infuriating and sort of puzzling. I can't see, other than the cost of compensation, how New Zealand wouldn't be better off if we knew what had happened, we were able as a society to apologise to those our system damaged and we could make sure we didn't make the same mistakes in the future."
Noonan's successor, chief Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford, said he and a team of lawyers found the report's conclusions were legally flawed. That was why it was not published.
He said the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) did not require an independent inquiry in such cases, only that the process was impartial.
The real issue to focus on was if the MSD process was impartial enough, he said.
Victims do not trust government - judge
She wanted an independent body that holds MSD accountable and can investigate historic claims.
Mr Rutherford did not disagree.
"I would listen to Carolyn Henwood's view any day of the week over anyone else who's dealt with this stuff. We are definitely of the view, and it's different from this MSD claims process, that New Zealanders need to understand what happened here."
Judge Henwood's panel, which the government intended as a temporary measure, was disestablished in 2015.
The Ministry had set up an historic abuse claims unit before CLAS started.
Judge Henwood said many victims did not trust it.
"The department is the perpetrator and also the person trying to put it right. Some people are very, very anti the department because of all the harm and the way they've been dealt with over the years. So I don't think it's satisfactory and it's still not satisfactory. I think something independent is needed."
Attorney General Chris Finlayson declined to be interviewed, but a spokesperson said in a written statement:
"In 2011 the Chief Human Rights Commissioner invited the Attorney-General, along with a range of other parties, to consult over the Commission's report on the State's response to historic claims of abuse.

"The Attorney-General raised a number of concerns he had about the quality and objectivity of the report for their consideration."


Aaron Smale Te Manu Korihi Reporter aaron.smale@radionz.co.nz




Thursday, November 10, 2016

why i am so angry with NZ Government

well just imagine that you yourself as a young 15-year-old boy were raped and tortured and went to the police and told them only to have the police tell you that you are just another mentally defective  trouble maker and refuse to investigate in fact threaten to arrest you so you take off and the anger builds so you keep fighting and years later have another go only with 30 other people swearing on oath the same thing happened to them so police spend years investigating < delaying > only to come back and say without even interviewing us sorry we can't find enough evidence to press charges. then 10 years later apologize for missing some evidence that would be good enough to bring him to trial only the government won't extradite Dr. Selwyn Leeks from Australia to stand trial as it would embarrass them as he was a state employee abusing wards of the state children.
so we go to the UN who ruled we should get access to full rehab and proper compensation only the NZ govt won't have a bar of it and say they have done enough for the survivors ha they have done nothing for me the lying pricks so now can you understand my anger.
well as you should be angry too due to the millions that have been spent on lawyers over the last 40 years trying to stop us from getting justice so if you think you can get justice in NZ think again but I will never give up and will keep attacking what ever party is in power with the facts until my dying day

visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/190198281412498/
 UN Committee against Torture finds NZ in Violation of Abuse Claimants Human Rights



Boy 'Tortured' just like NZ Govt treated its child... http://kiwijustice2.blogspot.com/2016/07/boy-tortured-just-like-nz-govt-treated.html?spref=tw