Hon Jacinda Arden PM of New Zealand

I would like NZ to respect their obligations to the UN Convention Against Torture. We want an independent and impartial investigation of our cases. We want a public and unreserved apology. We want public acknowledgement of what occurred. We want a Royal Commission or Commission of Inquiry that is independent, impartial, open and public (we don’t want our histories buried by a government in damage control which forms the CLAS which is forbidden from making a public or ministerial comment). Yes, shockingly we want what was afforded to institutional abuse survivors in every other commonwealth jurisdiction – an inquiry that acknowledges and validates our trauma  We want to protect future generations of children from the monsters we encountered as children through policies and law. With public knowledge comes public accountability. Thus, we want a public inquiry. Your government through the CLAS has engaged in a cynical cover-up  We want adequate redress for the carnage that the abuse caused. We want access to the courts where the State doesn’t invoke the statute of limitations defences. Basically,  all political smoke and mirrors aside, we want NZ to respect its obligations to the UNCAT. Until then we will keep fighting. The NZ state abused me once- shame on you. But to abuse me twice – shame on me. Isn’t going to happen and we aren’t going away until we get meaningful justice. And the NZ Governments inaction to do anything meaningful about it. We have never been offered any rehab to get over the trauma we where put through and the govt has spent in excess of 20 million on lawyers fighting us at the UN and making it as difficult as they can to prevent us having our say

and as for the NZ Police investigation and then their apology for overlooking an eyewitness to at least one case and so Dr Selwyn Leeks could have been brought to justice for the torture and sexual abuse he put us threw I escaped lake Alice and lived in fear like an escaped criminal from 15 till I was 36 and found out the place had been closed down my whole life was stolen by being put into lake Alice as a ward of the state I still have vivid nightmares even today which affects my whole family I have permanent memory loss and cognitive problems due to all the ECT most while I was awake and naked locked in a cell with nothing but a bucket for a toilet and you say all NZers have an equal chance at life!  So I rot on an invalids benefit because ACC refuse to recognize ECT as medical misadventure and never had access to get treatment for this as most MPs have selective memory as well here is so info 

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/11/16/325081/inquirys-filings-will-lead-to-royal-omission

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/11/glimmer-of-hope-for-lake-alice-state-abuse-survivors.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/190198281412498/

Children's home survivors sue Govt for $500k

Bevan Hurley is the Herald on Sunday chief reporter.

Children's home survivors sue Govt for $500k

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Sunday, 29 September 2013

The Glade, described by former residents as 'evil', was burned down in a suspected arson in 2003.

Former residents of a home for troubled kids have launched a $500,000 lawsuit against the Government for claims of physical and sexual abuse.

Eleven former residents of The Glade in the inner Auckland suburb of Epsom say the abuse included being pinned to the ground for hours in a controversial "human straitjacket " restraint known as a "Michael Whiting Hold".

The hold was among "unconventional" teaching methods promoted at the time.

Drug-taking and sexual relationships between staff members and residents were common, the Herald on Sunday has been told.

The Glade was home to some children who went on to become criminals, most notoriously Antoine Dixon.

Dixon attacked Simonne Butler, Renee Gunbie and James Te Aute in a P-fuelled samurai sword rampage, before killing himself in prison.

Some children never left the home: they died either by committing suicide or in accidents while still living at The Glade.

The doors of the historic homestead were closed for the last time in the late 1990s and it was razed in a suspected arson in 2003.

Katharine Ross, from Wellington law firm Cooper Legal, said that former residents had approached her firm over a period of time.

"It's not a case of a bunch of seven mates coming to us and saying we want you to act for us," she said. "It's more a case of us joining the dots.

"It's not serious, serious sexual abuse but it's still enough to warrant a claim being brought. As far as I'm aware none of (the complainants) know each other."

A former supervisor - who is accused in court documents of committing sexual abuse - denied any wrongdoing.

He said staff at social welfare homes were easy targets for historic abuse cases.

"It seems to be the flavour of the day, a lot of that sort of thing is coming out of the woodwork."

Many of the staff members were university students with no formal training or qualifications, said former residents.

Donna Jamieson says she was abused at The Glade. Photo / Supplied

One, Donna Jamieson, said residents were subjected to systematic abuse. Jamieson fell pregnant at the age of 16 to another resident and was told: "You either have an abortion or get out."

Continued below.

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"They made my life hell," she said. She recently moved to Australia and is not part of the court case, but said she had suffered ongoing emotional trauma as a result of her experiences at The Glade.

Father Felix Donnelly, the Catholic priest and former talkback host who founded the home, said he was surprised the historic abuse claims had been brought.

Now aged 83, Donnelly said he was familiar with the Michael Whiting Hold but had never used it himself.

"We had to restrain children at times to preserve furniture and people. They went wild. I personally never laid hands on people but some of the staff would have."

Donnelly said he remembered allegations of abuse at the time - but they were investigated and discounted.

"I would question the validity of the claims because I was always open to speaking to them. We were very careful with anything of the nature of what you are discussing. This is a worry."

Ministry of Social Development historic claims chief analyst Garth Young said The Glade was run by Youthlink although the ministry did place young people in Youthlink homes.

"Accordingly, we have an obligation to investigate these claims, which we are doing."

The ministry has received 1,229 historic claims between 2004 and the end of August this year. It has paid out $6 million to 297 people who were in a range of residences and private care.

Hold was 'very degrading'

Vanessa, 38, says she was put in a Michael Whiting Hold for hours by a resident of The Glade.

"One time, they brought a boy I had a crush on to watch them do this to me. All staff members and my parents sat around in a semicircle ... They were silently communicating with each other through paper and pen.

"Afterwards, to reconnect and calm you down, they would stroke you like a light massage. This caused more anxiety for me rather than calming me and then they put me in the hold again.

"I was held like this twice, possibly three times, in my stay there ... One time I had returned from school and they Michael Whited me in my uniform. I was screaming for them to at least let me change from my skirt as the hold involved having your legs apart. They wouldn't let me.

"It was not of a sexual nature but very degrading ... I fought and screamed so much that I burst a blood vessel in my eye.

"I also managed to free myself and I escaped down the stairs, slamming a door ... I was returned to the room, where they continued. I was told that this punishment was rarely used on girls."

Call to MPs to support A Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse

Dear Sir or Madam 

For the past 6 weeks, I have been collecting signatures throughout Hawkes Bay in support of Grant Wests’ Petition for a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.  I collected almost 500 signatures and I would have acquired more however issues with council permission, businesses refusing to let me collect in their carpark due to the subject nature of the petition and the drinking water crisis, hindered my ability to gain further support.  As I have been let down by the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service (CLAS) Process, I felt driven to support Grant.  I didn’t give up and travelled to Wellington on Thursday 15th September for the hand over of the petition on Parliament grounds and I was heartened by the support of MPs.

 Here is some background as to why i feel we need this.

The CLAS process included sharing my experiences but it was cut short as the Panel were running late to catch their plane.  This perpetuates the feeling of victimisation and not being heard fully in a forum set up for this purpose.  I will briefly share my story in hopes that you will further understand why I struggle and what motivates me to continue to voice this issue.

I was 10 years old when I was sexually abused by my teacher.  My dad was a drunk and my mother dismissed what I was trying to tell her, so by the time I was 15 years old I had gone a little off the rails.  Due to my father’s alcoholism, he would beat me and one day I threatened to kill him if he hit me again.  Eventually I ended up being placed into State Care at Lake Alice.  I tried to run away and when I was caught they put me in a cell.  While in the cell, I put my bed on its end and used my sheets to make a noose.  I tied them around the sprinkler pipe and I was hanging for quite a while as the noose would not slip tight enough. I was cut down, stripped naked, all the bedding was removed and I was then given Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT or shock therapy) to parts of my body and my head, all the while screaming in pain.  When i came too i was cold and naked, laying on a mattress on the ground with no blankets and just a bucket for a toilet.  I was given many more ECT treatments and subsequently I was sexually abuse by a staff member.  As a result i escaped from the institution, seemingly like an escaped criminal for many years.  I feared the police because I believed I would be sent back to Lake Alice. I was severely traumatised by this experience resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and an acute loss of short term memory, which is a side effect of the ECT Treatment forced upon me.

I had a complete melt down again at 35 and with my 4th suicide attempt i was taken to Auckland Hospital.   It was decided that the very treatment that contributed to my PTSD, being the ECT I was given at Lake Alice 20 years earlier, was the best option to treat my condition.  There I was forced to endure more ECT and suffered additional memory problems which still persist today and is not covered by ACC’s medical misadventure.  Due to the ECT treatment and impairment to my short term memory, I was labelled an ‘airhead’ and often abused when I was working.  This affected my ability to explain what I was experiencing and maintain ongoing employment.

The downside to the CLAS process was they could not order police to investigate and or prosecute my abusers.  It could not compensate me for the abuse suffered at the hands of my school teacher and nor could the fast track system address this. CLAS was only able to offer me 8 hours of Counselling.  

Many people (that i have spoken too) who have received the fast track payout, were advised to take the payments offered otherwise it would be years before their case was heard in court or through the Historical Unit dealing with their claims.  More often, the payments received would not even cover their counselling  costs as many like me sort out private counselling as already abused by public system, so in that respect, they received no real compensation for their injuries.

Currently there is no judicial remedy in place to charge those State Employees with the crimes they committed against myself and others in the same situation.  Even though Lake Alice is deemed a separate issue, the police team who investigated Dr Selwyn Leeks were not able to successfully gain a conviction due to missing information.  While the police have apologised for their error, they will not take any action against Dr Selwyn Leeks, who is still alive today.

As far as I have determined, the fast track system does not assess or address any sexual abuse I suffered at the hands of my teacher, or abuse by Church Ministers, Police or other State Employees.  The standard of address is very poor and barely covers children who were sexually abused while in State run Children’s Homes and CYPS care.

Whilst the fast track system offered victims an apology, it is an empty and meaningless gesture without any police action to back it up.  The compensation given would not adequately cover the level of suffering I have experienced for over 40 years of my life.  In my situation, I have had to fight so hard to get my life on track.  It might seem cliche to use this term but I fought ‘tooth and nail’ every single day to endure the stress precipitated by the memory confusion. Eventually my health was impeded by the two heart attacks that followed.

i can no longer work and I suffer ongoing nightmares and flashbacks.  During these times my wife has to sleep with the children as my screaming and thrashing about has hurt her.  I can not give my kids a normal life or take them away on a holiday as I have to live on the Supported Living Payment previously known as Invalids Benefit  because of the significant injury to my brain and health.

I have never been able to access real rehab and it rolls on to affect many more people in my life than just myself.  I am left wondering why my family and friends have to suffer the consequences because the current government refuses to address the cause of the problem.  Whilst I did not benefit from the fast track system, the whole process had the appearance of helping victims of child abuse while in State Care, when in fact it does not.  The many stories you will hear and have heard to date will support this statement.  By giving victims a few dollars and a “I’m sorry for what happened to you all those years ago”, does not fix their suffering or enable them to live a normal happy life.  All it does is give a temporary reprieve from the financial burden of being unable to work but the consequences of the past abuse remain the same and the fall out from it continues on.

In order to deal with this in an open and transparent manner I am asking for your support in the request for a Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.  There are still hundreds of victims refusing to accept the fast track plan and they will eventually have their day in court.  As a victim, I would appreciate your support to back our call to have this open and honest independent investigation.

Thank you.

graphs from child abuse nz site

New Zealand Government sued over alleged child abuse in former Dept of S...

New Zealand Human rights group to Geneva

A human rights group is in Geneva to address what they say is the government's feigned ignorance toward ill-treatment of people in state institutions. 

Waikato mental health advocates are praising the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which will meet with the United Nations to represent the voice of Kiwis who are ill-treated under the public system, particularly those with mental illness.

"We stand behind them," said Carolyn McKenzie, chairwoman of Patients' Rights Advocacy Waikato Inc, "in that we believe there are too many treatments of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) given in New Zealand."

CCHR will meet with the UN's Committee Against Torture on Tuesday,ahead of a visit by New Zealand Government bureaucrats, which could shape the government's approach to preventing ill-treatment within hospitals, prisons and state-owned care facilities.

Steve Green, executive director for CCHR, said the aim of the visit was to make the New Zealand government "wake up".

"We want the NZ government to admit ill treatment is happening and has happened and that they will abide by the [UN's guidelines]."

 ECT is one of the aggressive forms of treatment still used in New Zealand, which McKenzie said was a form of torture.

"It's been used as a [form of] torture for a very long time and if the end result is going to cause long term damage then you have to say - this is still torture," said McKenzie.

"I would like to see ECT ended. We know it destroys peoples memory. We see a lot of people who say, I've had ECT and I can't remember things, please help me."

Although the United Nations does not have the power to outlaw such a treatment, McKenzie said the United Nations meeting with CCHR would start the right conversations.

"They have a good track record," she said.

CCHR was founded in the 1970s and successfully campaigned for $13 million compensation payout and apology to almost 200 child victims from Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in Rangitikei. 

One of the victims of the Lake Alice atrocities has gone with CCHR to Geneva, to help represent the victims of state abuse throughout New Zealand. 

CCHR will have a private session with the Committee Against Torture on Monday, just prior to when the committee speak to the NZ Government representatives.

New Zealand signed the United Nation's Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2007 - which allows independent inspectors to visit state-owned facilities where people are deprived of their civil liberties and advocate their protection.

However Green said, this still allowed complaints to be dealt with in-house, where he said patients felt intimidated.

"In all the historic state abuse cases, victims were forced into a regime of having to prove themselves to authorities, as victims, take out a prosecution against the government and most had to appeal for legal aid," Green said.

"The conventions against torture and for the rights of those with disabilities are very well written and if implemented would actually put an end to ill-treatment and abuse..."

Green said this would have a flow-on effect in the corrections department and for patients under the public health system.

"We are targeting right at the bottom level because mental health is such a marginalised section of society [so] then the government will look at everything else they are doing in the same light."

 - Stuff

ACC's quota deal with Smith revealed

ACC'S policy of ridding itself of thousands of long-term clients is laid bare in agreements the corporation signed with the Government revealing that a far tougher quota system was adopted two years ago.

Senior ACC managers have since spoken of their success at cutting long-term clients from the books at a conference in Australia, saying the "low-hanging fruit" was gone but the job would get harder.

General manager of claims management Denise Cosgrove told the actuary conference in Brisbane in November that ACC has now shifted its focus to high-cost claims and had "an absolute strategy" but was keeping it secret.

"But that's what we are developing this year. The dollar amount we can achieve in savings from the long-term tail service, so that's how we can drive some of these improvements," she said.

"You might sit there and say, 'Well yeah, sure, that's just all the low-hanging fruit and the easy gains. How are you going to sustain that momentum?' And I get that constant message from the board every day."

In June 2010, then ACC minister Nick Smith and outgoing ACC chairman John Judge signed a three-year agreement that stated as a "priority" that the corporation would get rid of 1150 long-term clients a year. It had 13,157 such clients when the service and purchase agreement was signed.

For the first year of the agreement, ACC beat its target by "exiting" 1542 clients. The agreement was then amended, and last year aimed to reduce long-term client numbers by 406. ACC again beat that figure by cutting 843.

Ms Cosgrove told the group of insurers and actuaries in Brisbane that ACC had "an absolute strategy ... and we're not reporting it as a public measure yet". Its focus was now on high-cost claims because the "actuarial release" would be stronger.

The policy has drawn criticism from ACC clients, advocates and politicians.

Greens ACC spokesman Kevin Hague said the agreements showed ACC's board was under pressure to "literally remove thousands of claimants from the corporation".

The pressure from Dr Smith led to the board pressuring frontline staff and managers into adopting "highly unacceptable practices" such as bonus payments for getting clients off its lists, he said.

ACC had not yet signed an agreement with current ACC Minister Judith Collins, which would give her an opportunity to show her stated intent to "drive a culture change in ACC to restore public trust and confidence" in it.

"If, instead, the agreement she signs looks more or less the same as those of her predecessor, then her words will be seen as hollow," Mr Hague said.

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An ACC spokeswoman said the long-term claims pool had decreased in recent years because there were fewer claims entering it and more leaving it.

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- The Dominion Post

Lake Alice abuse govt statements

Psychiatric Patients—Abuse Claims

6. TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Māori Party) to the Attorney-General: Will the Government commit to establishing a settlement process to respond to claims being made by former patients of Porirua and other psychiatric hospitals, along the lines of the inquiry headed by Sir Rodney Gallen into abuses at Lake Alice Hospital; if not, why not?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Attorney-General): No; the Government’s view remains that the claims are materially different in important respects.

Tariana Turia: Does the Government accept that the claims now being made by former patients of Porirua and other psychiatric hospitals are essentially similar to the claims made by the former patients of Lake Alice Hospital for which the Government has paid compensation; if not, why not?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: No, the Government does not accept that. There are a number of differences: the Lake Alice Hospital claims allegations related to a confined period; the claimants were all treated by the same doctor; contemporaneous medical records enabled the circumstances to be well established and verified; and also, of course, an approach was made in that case for discussion in terms of allowing people’s stories to be heard. There are, therefore, some significant differences. Obviously, we shall await what happens through the court legal process.

Dr Jonathan Coleman: Who took the decision to withhold $35,000 from the compensation awarded to Mr Paul Zentveld by Sir Rodney Gallen, and did that person or persons also order similar amounts to be withheld from the 87 other second-round claimants in the Lake Alice Hospital case?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I cannot be certain of this, but my recollection is that that was a collective decision in the end, and was not the decision of an individual Minister.

Tariana Turia: Why has the Government decided to force the victims of mistreatment, who have already been severely traumatised, to go through the torment of court procedures in order to seek justice; and would the taxpayer-funded costs be better used to reach settlement with the claimants?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I accept these cases are always extremely difficult. I do not deny the issues around the way people feel about their experiences. But one of the more difficult issues that always comes into play in these kinds of considerations is what was generally accepted at the time these things occurred, not what is the general acceptance at the present time as to what should have occurred. If we do not actually ask the former question, the Government could be liable for an extraordinary wide range of compensation across an extraordinary wide range of issues.

Tariana Turia: Does the Government accept that the claims now being made by former patients at Porirua and other psychiatric hospitals are evidence of a widespread culture of violence and abuse towards psychiatric patients that existed between the 1950s and the 1980s; if not, why not?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: There have been many changes in culture. We regarded it as normal in the 1950s and 1960s to lock up large numbers of people in mental hospitals, perhaps for the remainder of their lives—sometimes, merely because they had an intellectual disability, not any form of mental illness. These days we do not accept such forms of treatment or behaviour as being within the norms of a modern society. That does not mean to say the Government should be paying compensation to everybody who was kept in a mental hospital in the 1950s and 1960s. We have to be very careful here about how practices and attitudes have changed over time.

State care abuse victims feel fast-track pressure

People who were abused while in state care say they feel under pressure to accept fast-track compensation offers, for fear of receiving nothing.

Photo: 123RF

The Ministry of Social Development is offering historical claimants the option to have their abuse claims settled on face value, and after some fact-checking they will be paid out and offered an apology.

Eighty percent of people offered a fast-track offer so far have accepted it.

One woman, who wanted to be known as Debs, was abused in foster care as a child.

She lodged a compensation claim with the Ministry of Social Development nine years ago and this year was offered $5000 under the fast-track system.

"When the mail came through and I opened it and read it was $5000, I was gutted, and refused to take it. My life is worth more than five grand after what I went through."

Debs said she was low on money so took the offer, but that was partly because she worried that, if she did not, she could end up with nothing.

Her payment was one of the 401 fast-track offers made so far. Of those, there have been 307 payouts totalling nearly $5.8m.

Daryl Brougham said he put in his claim in 2011 for abuse suffered from when he was aged from three months to 18 years old.

He accepted an offer of $70,000 this year - which he said barely covered the medical bills caused by the abuse.

Mr Brougham said when he started talking about his payout, others told him of their much lower fast-track offers.

"Emails of people saying: 'Daryl, I did that too and I was only offered $2000, $5000, $7000'.

"And a lot of them come back to me and say 'Daryl, I took it, because that was the only option I had. I couldn't afford a lawyer and what else am I supposed to do?'"

Minister of Social Development Anne Tolley said it would be "disappointing" if people felt pressured.

Photo: RNZ

The Labour Party's justice spokesperson, Jacinda Ardern, said the fast-track offers she had seen left the impression the claimants could end up with nothing if they did not take it.

"The way in which the offer has been made, certainly as I've heard from claimants themselves, had left them with a feeling that if they did not take this offer they could be waiting a very long time and possibly not settle at all."

The Minister of Social Development, Anne Tolley, defended the process, saying claimants were clearly told they could ignore the offer and opt for the full process.

"It would be disappointing if people felt that they were under pressure.

"From the correspondence I've had, there are a large number of people that are really grateful for the opportunity to have their case recognised, and an apology, and to have the matter settled so that they could move on."

The fast-track offers so far had only been made to people without legal representation and Mrs Tolley said those with lawyers would get offers soon.

But some of those who were abused said the Government was deliberately targeting people who were more likely to accept an offer first, so that it could cross them off the list.

Related

'Justice remains to be done' over Lake Alice | Stuff.co.nz

'Justice remains to be done' over Lake Alice

"Lake Alice Hospital is cleared, but valuable doctor lost" read the headline in January 1978. If psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks thought that was the last word on abuse claims in the adolescent unit he had headed, he was wrong.

Not just wrong then, but wrong now, because 32 years later those who accuse him show no sign of backing down on their claims.

In 1977, police investigated a complaint that three years earlier staff had given two boys, then aged 12 and 13, electric shocks on the legs using the same equipment used for electro-convulsive therapy, or ECT.

It was claimed the painful shocks were used as a form of punishment.

Police spent seven months looking at allegations of mistreatment at the hospital before issuing a brief statement saying they had found no evidence of criminal misconduct.

Last week police again dismissed complaints, this time from 40 people who wanted criminal charges laid for acts committed at the unit, and not just by Dr Leeks. The complaints had stacked up over many years. Some were dismissed in 2005 only to be revived when more surfaced, but the result was the same. A complaint to the United Nations is now planned.

Dr Leeks, now aged about 80, left New Zealand a week before the result of the 1977-78 police inquiry was made public. It was reported that he had gone to Melbourne to work as a child psychiatrist.

At the time Mason Durie, then director of the Palmerston North Hospital psychiatric unit, said it was a "major loss" and that Dr Leeks had borne the brunt of a lot of bad publicity and "snide innuendo".

"He was surprised and disappointed at the publicity. It certainly did play a part in his decision to leave," Dr Durie was quoted as saying.

Dr Leeks had been working for the Palmerston North Hospital Board since January 1971 when he had returned from studying overseas.

Kevin Banks, now 51, was sent to Lake Alice Hospital as a 12-year-old for bad behaviour, and because there was nowhere else for children like him. He spent nearly three years at Lake Alice under Dr Leeks' care.

"A lot of people have called him a sadist and I believe that could be true." At first he saw Dr Leeks as a quietly spoken father-figure. "But then you would realise what a prick he was."

Dr Leeks lived in the hospital grounds near the adolescent unit and the children would see him coming and going. He made a regular Friday visit to the unit but also came at other times to get his "shock box" to administer ECT in other units or to children.

Mr Banks said Dr Leeks taught unqualified staff to use ECT and it was they who would use it on the children's legs and genitals.

"He was around enough to know what was happening," Mr Banks said.

Dr Leeks gave it only on the head, sometimes using a muscle relaxant. "He has given me a lot of nightmares. My head is not where it should be."

Mr Banks complained in the 1970s. He gave evidence to an inquiry and thought he was believed. The unit closed after Dr Leeks left in 1978, but nothing else was done.

In Parliament in May 1977 an MP presented the statement of a professional person who had direct contact with staff and patients at the unit for three years. The witness said that at the end of each week the psychiatrist responsible for the unit visited, met staff and discussed the behaviour of the children.

"Children whose conduct had been difficult or unacceptable were on this basis selected for ECT treatment as an aversive form of punishment, and so perceived by the children concerned."

But Dr Leeks said the allegation was "arrant rubbish". He thought the terms treatment and punishment became "awfully mixed up at times".

His public statements about the claims made against him have been infrequent. On legal advice he refused to be interviewed for the latest police inquiry.

In 2001-02 the government paid out more than $10 million and apologised to 180 former patients of the adolescent unit after a private inquiry into the patients' claims.

In 2001, Dr Leeks told The Dominion the unit had done the best it could with the staff it had. Any further inquiry would be "more of the same", based on what happened in 1977.

"I guess being the one in charge I'm the obvious one to hunt down.

"But of the four or five hundred children that came into the unit ... some were very discontented with what happened and there is a lot that's been said that's not true."

In 2002, he told a reporter he was not bothered that complaints were laid with police. "I'm not worried. This has all been dealt with before. And I'm still practising." At the time he was running a private psychiatric practice in Melbourne.

But pressure from the College of Psychiatrists was mounting. The college called on anyone adversely affected to complain to the professional disciplinary bodies for psychiatrists in either New Zealand or Victoria.

"The prime minister and the health minister in New Zealand have seen fit to apologise and to compensate the former `patients' of the service operated by Dr Leeks," the college's executive director, Craig Glenroy Patterson, said.

"And yet despite everything they have been through and all the allegations being made publicly about their experiences, no investigation into the role played by this doctor in the alleged practices has been successfully completed."

ON the eve of the long-awaited hearing into his professional conduct in 2006, Dr Leeks stopped all forms of medical practice and undertook not to start again, anywhere. On that basis the Victoria Medical Practitioners Board did not proceed with the hearing.

In 2008 he lost an appeal against a $55,000 award to a woman a court accepted he had sexually assaulted in 1979-80. He was photographed outside court but has since gone to ground and could not be contacted for this article.

Steve Greene, executive director of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, said that at least nine complainants had not been interviewed by police as part of their latest inquiry.

The commission had also sent "screeds" of evidence to police, but had been told it was not wanted, Mr Greene said. It would now refer victims' statements to the United Nations. "The key thing about this is justice is not being seen to be done."

- The Dominion Post

Woman had 200 shocks after wrong diagnosis | Stuff.co.nz

200 shocks after wrong diagnosis

A Christchurch woman who was wrongly diagnosed a schizophrenic and given 200 bouts of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has received a formal apology.

Joan Bellingham, 59, is "on cloud nine" that 10 years of fighting the law has "finally come to a really positive end".

The Crown Health Financing Agency (CHFA) said Bellingham was wrongly labelled a drug user, an alcoholic and a schizophrenic.

At 17, Bellingham was training to be a nurse, and she claims she was bullied by one of her tutors because she was a lesbian.

Her tutor, who has since died, drove her to Princess Margaret Hospital in Cashmere, where she was committed and diagnosed with "neurotic personality disorder".

Between 1970 and 1982, Bellingham was admitted to hospital 24 times and had about 200 ECT treatments.

ECT sends an electric shock through the brain.

Bellingham says she was punished with soap and water enemas and given concoctions of medications almost daily.

She was in and out of hospital but was kept highly medicated. In 1973 – three years after she was first committed – she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic, a diagnosis maintained until 1982.

She was later diagnosed with hepatitis C, which her GP thought could have been contracted while in hospital.

"With this apology ... with the fact that they are acknowledging that I wasn't an intravenous drug user, now I can go back to my claim with ACC for medical misadventure," she told The Press.

She has received compensation but cannot disclose the amount.

"It's not a huge amount ... but it's enough for a holiday."

Bellingham said the settlement made her "feel free".

"Even though I always knew I wasn't a drug user, a schizophrenic or an alcoholic, all of those things were still on my notes," she said. "I'm just so thrilled and very excited."

In a letter from the CHFA, chairman Alastair Scott said he hoped the settlement would offer Bellingham some "closure and a sense of peace".

"The hospital failed to take care of you in a way that you could have reasonably expected and for this we are genuinely sorry," he said.

In June 2010, the Crown was facing more than 250 claims from former psychiatric patients.

CHFA chief executive Graeme Bell hoped outstanding claims would be settled this month.

- The Press

Paid $25,000 and told to stay silent | Stuff.co.nz

Paid $25,000 and told to stay silent

JOHN SELKIRK/The Dominion Post

Tracie Nichols outside the former girls' home in Hamilton where she was abused.

EXCLUSIVE: A woman dying of anorexia was paid hush money by Child Youth and Family after accusing one of their managers of molesting her in a state-run girls home. 

Hamilton woman Tracie Nichols, 33, says she was abused and betrayed by the CYF manager, who was paid to keep her safe. She was in the Hamilton Girls Home to escape a serial paedophile who had earlier abused her.

A confidentiality clause in the $25,000 settlement - made two years ago - silenced her from talking about the manager's abuse.

CYF historic claims manager Garth Young told The Dominion Post that the agency had apologised to Ms Nichols for the abuse. CYF also confirmed it would not pursue her for breaching the confidentially clause attached to her secret payout.

Mr Young said confidentiality clauses were "standard legal procedure" two years ago but would not be used today.

"We have learnt a lot ... we do not want claimants to believe that we are restricting their ability to speak about what happened to them.

"We know that claimants want to be heard; they want an acknowledgement of what happened to them."

However, the abuse by the CYF manager was only one in a series of blunders made by the agency in its care of Ms Nichols.

She was made a state ward at the age of 12, when she complained of abuse by a man who subsequently confessed to CYF. The agency also knew he was a serial paedophile because he admitted to preying on other children.

But - within a year of becoming a state ward - Ms Nichols had been placed in a foster home where the abuser was able to get at her again.

At the time, CYF described the blunder as "regrettable".

When she was 14, Ms Nichols was put in Hamilton Girls Home to escape the serial paedophile. It was here the CYF manager of the home abused her over about six months. He has since died.

Documents obtained by The Dominion Post show that, also while in the home, CYF planned an experiment of secretly "stepping up" contact between Ms Nichols and her first abuser.

"Tracie is not aware that this will be happening," the documents said.

In 2001, Ms Nichols complained to CYF of her abuse by the manager and asked why police had not been told of a complaint she made while resident in the home.

CYF, at the time, said her complaint was "extremely serious" and it would be pursued in "an open professional manner".

But, in 2005, CYF said it wanted the complaint settled secretly. It denied all liability but paid $25,000 to settle.

Ms Nichols' aunt and spokeswoman, Lisa Kenny, has criticised the confidential CYF settlement.

"For abuse to carry on, it has to be hushed up. By hushing it up they were being perpetrators of it," Ms Kenny said.

"They tried to cover it up and shut my niece up."

Ms Kenny was abused by the same serial paedophile who first molested Ms Nichol. He was convicted in 1998 of abusing them when they were children and was sentenced to periodic detention. The Dominion Post, with the consent of the two women, has successfully applied to lift a court order suppressing their identities.

Ms Kenny says Ms Nichols is anorexic and doctors have said she will die. Both women believe sexual abuse is the cause of the disease.

The Ministry of Social Development now has a Historic Claims Unit and Mr Young urged anyone else with allegations of abuse to make contact.

"It is extremely important to get this right. Not only to protect the rights of claimants, but to ensure that the rights of those subject to allegations is respected," he said.

- The Dominion Post

Historical Abuse: MSD secrecy over historical abuse claims | Stuff.co.nz

Historical Abuse: MSD secrecy over historical abuse claims

FAIRFAX 

Recent documents show the categories the Ministry of Social of Development is using to provide settlements for historical abuse, but the ministry is refusing to release the details within the categories. 

The Ministry of Social Development is refusing to reveal how it is assessing the claims of victims of historic abuse. 

It's also not allowing independent moderation of its assessments, prompting concerns victims are not getting a fair deal. 

The ministry is partway through a two-path process to settle the claims of more than 900 victims, who suffered abuse while in state care between the 1940s and 1993. 

The accelerated pathway allows for claims to be either assessed against set criteria to determine the level of settlement in line with the abuse, or claimants can try their luck in the courts. 

Cabinet documents obtained show a backlog of 921 historic claims has built up. The Government is aiming to settle them by 2020.

READ MORE:  
* Generation of children brutalised in state care won't get public apology 
* Payout for abuse victims 'deeply flawed' * MSD 'answerable to no one' in payout process, says lawyer

Official documents released to lawyer Sonja Cooper, who was representing more than 500 claimants, showed the "risk of client frustration" prompted the development of an accelerated process based on categories of abuse. 

The categories determine the level of compensation victims get, and when developing them MSD carried out initial negotiations with Cooper.

They range from Category 1 claimants receiving $42,500, for suffering "serious abuse with distinguishing characteristics", to category five claimants receiving $5000 for "failures not leading to abuse". 

But the ministry's chief legal advisor Rupert Ablett-Hampson would not release the finalised details, saying it could lead to the identification of victims who might publicise that they had received settlements within a particular bracket. 

"In particular, claimants may have put the amount they were offered and/or received from the Ministry into the public arena without anticipating the public release of information such as the category descriptions..." 

He said the ministry had a "duty to the people" not to make them feel re-victimised. 

Cooper said from their negotiations, the higher categories (from $30,000 up) were for clients who had been seriously sexually and/or physically abused.

MSD was pushing however, for physical abuse to be at a level requiring hospitalisation – "something we argued against as many were not given any treatment by those in whose care they were placed", Cooper said.

"The highest category required prolonged abuse of that nature, whereas the third category required only a few incidents of that kind.

"Less serious sexual abuse was covered by category four, along with what MSD defined as less serious physical assaults by staff."

Cooper said it was unclear whether any sexual assaults by others in care were covered - one of a number of concerns that could not be alleviated unless the ministry released the category details. 

The documents also outlined the process by which the ministry intended to "moderate" the claims. 

Ministry officials advised Social Development Minister Anne Tolley that settlements had to be in line with payments that had been made in the past, to be fair. 

But Cooper said she could only interpret that as meaning "MSD will have to artificially deflate the categories of many of the claims to fit within the model of payments for past claimants". 

It made a "mockery of the process" that the ministry was assessing abuse for which its own carers were responsible for, with no outside input.

"It is worse than the old process in many ways, as parts of the claim (like practice failures) will not be taken into account at all, and MSD will arbitrarily slot a claim into a category, based on what previous claimants have received, while all the time purporting to make payments on the basis of accepting what the claimant has said occurred to them in care."

 - Stuff

NZ GOVT COMPO OFFER A KICK IN THE GUTS FOR ABUSE VICTIM

The Gisborne man says he has suffered from stress and depression from the effects of his suffering over 25 years. File photo / NZ Herald

A man abused as a ward of the state 25 years ago is incensed about the $12,000 compensation offer made to him, and the process used by the Ministry of Social Development.

The 40-year-old Gisborne man has been dealing with the ministry's historic claims resolution process for the past five years and has gone into their fast-track process, which began late last month.

Upon settlement, claimants receive prompt financial payment and a letter of apology.

The man said the $12,000 offer worked out to be the equivalent of $480 a year over the past 25 years.

"Do you know how that makes me feel? It's a kick in the guts," he said as he struggled to hold back tears.

"I received a [fast track] letter dated May 29 and I have a month to make up my mind.

"Where's the justice?"

He had suffered from stress and depression from the effects of his suffering over 25 years, he said.

The anguish had led him to make bad decisions in his life.

He has a legal document that shows a Family Court judge in Hawke's Bay sentenced him into care in what he says was a breach of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act by bypassing a family group conference.

He has other issues with the ministry.

His own son was abused while in state care in 2010 and 2011, he says.

As a result, his son ran away with two other abused victims.

But against family wishes, he had been placed back in the same institution.

"There was no investigation. My son was victimised.

"I don't want my son to go through the same crap as me, so that he has to go through an historic claims process in 25 years."

He has no confidence in the ministry.

The man said he did not consider the offer to be genuine compensation.

He did not want to accept the offer but he had a large family to support.

"I want that $12,000 ... but I don't want it."

The ministry has received 1572 claims since 2004 and 583 have been resolved, with payouts totalling $8.4 million.

The average time taken to resolve a claim is 27 months, while 207 claims have been in the system for more than five years. There are 862 people eligible for the faster settlement process.

The Confidential Listening and Assistance Service has provided support services to more than 700 people as part of the historic claims process.

Close to $1.9 million in funding over two years will enable the ministry to support the service.

The Government aims to settle all historic claims by 2020 for those who came into state care before December 31, 1992.

The man said the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service was too close to the Ministry and lacked independence.

He has declined to be represented by Cooper Legal, a law firm representing hundreds of people abused as children in Social Welfare care.

Sonja Cooper, principal of Cooper Legal, said hundreds of claimants were subject to settlement processes that were inconsistent, biased and harmful to the wellbeing of the people they are intended to serve.

"The historic claims team does not have the statutory powers of the UK Inquiry," she said.

"It is not independent or impartial, and turns a blind eye to what was, and remains, a system where children were subjected to systemic physical and sexual abuse."

Ms Cooper said historic claims team interviewers were telling abuse victims that they believed the victims' accounts of physical or sexual abuse - only for the Ministry to write to the victim later and tell them that their allegations of abuse were not accepted.

"It is hard for a victim to accept that one part of Government can apologise for abuse perpetrated on them, and another part of Government denies that it ever happened," said Ms Cooper.

by Gisborne Herald staff  10/6/2015

ME MYSELF AND I

I was a young boy  and had forced ECT in 1975 in lake alice mental hospital NZ for trying to run away and again 2001 in Auckland hospital due to being overwhelmed buy the effects of keeping all the memories of my childhood suppressed, I tried to take my life. I was not warned of all the risks or side effects, I did not ask for or want The electroshock therapy, according to my friend in 2001 it lifted me from a depression into a brief silliness (the euphoric high that typically follows ECT), quickly followed by an even worse depression than before. And it left me with severe memory loss, and I believe some more cognitive damage, which made it even harder to cope with work and family life .

"I'm interested in the people who say: "But you're so articulate now, how could electroshock therapy have possibly been destructive?" My answer: You do not know me. You do not know what I was like before I had the electric shock treatment, and you do not know what I am like now. Do not pretend that you know what I feel, what I think or who I am. Just because I was able to write a book does not give you a picture of me, other than the picture I 'choose' to present in public. Most people who know me, other than those EXTREMELY close to me never even knew I was depressed. I have a public face, and a private face, and the two are very different. I work very hard at maintaining the public face, and I have worked hard to recover from several very low points in my life. I have never said I was brain dead, simply that there was damage." how much I may never know as Doctors seem unwilling or to scared to run the tests to find out, is this because they already know what the answer  is. I just wish they would stop running for cover and do all they can to help me recover so I can have some form of normal life with my family, they deserve to be happy to don’t they.

Malcolm Justice

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS on the 6th periodic report of NEW ZEALAND

Committee against Torture

ADVANCE UNEDITED VERSION

1.        The  Committee  against  Torture  considered  the  sixth  periodic  reports  of  New Zealand (CAT/C/NZL/6) at its 1292nd and 1295th meetings, held on 21 and 22 April 2015 (see CAT/C/SR.1292 and 1295), and adopted at its 1312nd and 1314th meetings, held on 5 and 6 May 2015 (see CAT/C/SR.1312 and 1314), the following concluding observations.

A.    Introduction

2.        The Committee welcomes the interactive dialogue held with the State party’s high- level multisectoral delegation, as well as the additional information and explanation provided by the delegation to the Committee.

B.    Positive aspects

3.        The Committee welcomes the State party’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OP-CRC-SC).

4.        The Committee welcomes the legislative and administrative changes in areas of relevance to the Convention, including:

(a)      Amendments  to  Family  Court  legislation,  to  enable  faster  more  fluid resolutions;

(b)      The introduction of Police Safety Orders, to protect women and their families when police cannot arrest someone for family violence due to insufficient evidence;

(c)      The commencement of the Immigration Act 2009, that entered into force on

29 November 2010, which prohibits expulsion to a place where a person faces a risk of torture and limits the situations in which asylum seekers may be detained.

(d)      The  enactment  of  the  Immigration  Amendment  Act  2013,  which  gives agencies the time needed to make enquiries into the backgrounds of groups of individuals, pending decisions on refugee or protection claims;

(e)      The enactment of the Victims of Crime Reform, which aims to enhance victims’ rights and role in criminal justice processes, and improve the responses of government agencies to victims of crime;

(f)       The  enactment of  the  “Vulnerable Children  Act”  with  new measures to protect children.

5.        The Committee takes note of the legislative initiatives in areas of relevance to the Convention and encourages their adoption, including the introduction of a Bill to establish Victims’ Orders Against Violent Offenders, to reduce the likelihood that victims have unwanted contact with their perpetrators.

6.        The  Committee  welcomes  the  efforts  of  the  State  party  to  give  effect  to  the

Convention, including:

(a)      The  release  of  the  Children’s  Action  Plan  for  Vulnerable  Children,  of

October 2012;

(b)      The adoption by the Government, in 2013, of a broadened New Zealand’s

definition of trafficking which now includes the “exploitative purpose”;

(c)      The establishment by the Government of a Ministerial Group on Family Violence and Sexual Violence in December 2014, jointly led by the Ministers of Justice and Social Development.

7.        The Committee notes with appreciation the existence of a vibrant civil society that contributes significantly to the monitoring of torture and ill-treatment, thereby facilitating the effective implementation of the Convention in the State party.

C.    Principal subjects of concern and recommendations

Incorporation of the Convention in national legislation

8.        Bearing in mind its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/NZL/CO/5, para. 4) the Committee remains concerned that the Convention has not been fully incorporated into domestic law. The Committee further notes that judicial decisions make little reference to international human rights instruments, including the Convention. (art.2)

The Committee reiterates its previous concluding observations and recommend that the State Party should:

(a)      Enact comprehensive legislation to incorporate into domestic law the provisions of the Convention;

(b)      Strengthen the current mechanisms to ensure compatibility of domestic law with the Convention; and

(c)      Organize training programmes for the judiciary on the provisions of the

Convention and the jurisprudence of the Committee.

National Preventive Mechanism

9.        The  Committee welcomes the  work of  the  designated five  existing institutions forming the National Preventive Mechanism and coordinated by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. However, it notes that the Children’s Commissioner and the Independent Police Conduct Authority have not received sufficient resources and that the number of staff is inadequate to enable these bodies to fulfil their mandate (art. 2).

The State party should strengthen the National Preventive Mechanism (NPMs) and the five entities composing it by increasing without delay the funding available and ensure that all five entities are staffed with an appropriate number of personnel. The State party should also support the NPMs in developing and maintaining a collective identity through, inter alia, joint visits and joint public reports, harmonized working methods, shared expertise and enhanced coordination.

Independent Police Conduct Authority

10.      The Committee is concerned at the mandate of the Independent Police Conduct Authority which does not allow this institution to fully investigate and initiate prosecution of perpetrators. The Committee is also concerned that the law leaves to the police the power to initiate investigations on the police itself, raising questions about the independence of such investigations. (art. 4, 9, 11, 13)

The State party should ensure that the Independent Police Conduct Authority is equipped with  a  broader  mandate and  full  independence in  order  to  investigate promptly, effectively and impartially all reports of violence. In particular, such investigations should not be undertaken by or under the authority of the police or military, but by an independent body.

Violence against women

11.      While welcoming the measures adopted by the State party to prevent and combat violence against women (paras. 5 and 6(d) above), the Committee notes with concern reports on the persistence of violence against women, and particularly its disproportionate occurrence on Māori women. The Committee is particularly concerned at information received that while 90 per cent of the cases of sexual violence remain unreported, statistics also show that the number of applications for safety orders have decreased since 2010, even though the number of family violence investigations have increased over the same period. Moreover, the Committee is concerned at the lack of proper funding for specialist sexual violence services, including by specialists, which reflect the diversity in the States Parties’ communities. (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16).

In light of the persistent occurrence of violence against women, the Committee recalls its General Comment No. 2 on implementation of article 2 by States parties, and urges the State party to redouble its efforts to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women throughout its territory by, inter alia:

(a)      Taking necessary measures to encourage and facilitate the lodging of complaints by victims and to address effectively the barriers that may prevent women from reporting acts of violence against them, including by ensuring that education professionals,  health-care  providers  and  social  workers  are  fully  familiar  with relevant legal provisions, trained to recognize the signs of violence against women and are capable of complying with their obligation to report cases;

(b)      Ensuring the effective enforcement of the existing legal framework by promptly, effectively and impartially investigating all reports of violence and prosecuting and punishing perpetrators in accordance with the gravity of their acts;

(c)      Strengthening  public  awareness-raising  activities  to  combat  violence against women and gender stereotypes;

(d)      Increasing its efforts to combat violence against indigenous women;

(e)      Guaranteeing in practice that all victims benefit from protection and have access to adequately funded medical and legal aid, psychosocial counselling and social support schemes;

(f)       Removing the  cultural and  financial barriers to  accessing  protection orders by removing or reducing the costs associated;

(g)      Developing and implementing a comprehensive national sexual violence prevention strategy by further intensifying community-based approaches to combat violence against women, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.

Trafficking in persons

12.      While welcoming the progress in combating trafficking in persons (para. 6(c) above) the Committee is concerned that human trafficking remains, however, a matter of concern, as the State party reportedly continues to be a destination country for foreign men and women subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking and a source country for children subjected to sex trafficking within the country. The Committee notes also that despite the current situation only a limited number of trafficking cases have been recently prosecuted under its anti-trafficking legislation (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16).

The State party should:

(a)     Vigorously enforce the existing legislative framework and promptly, thoroughly  and  effectively  investigate,  prosecute  and  punish  with  appropriate penalties trafficking in persons and related practices;

(b)      Enhance   international   cooperation   to   combat   human   trafficking, including through bilateral agreements, and monitor its impact.

(c)      Provide specialized training to public officials, including on the Protocol to  Prevent,  Suppress and  Punish  Trafficking in  Persons,  Especially Women  and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

(d)      Adopt affective means to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish acts of trafficking, and conduct nationwide awareness-raising and media campaigns about the criminal nature of such acts;

(e)      Provide effective remedy to all victims of the crime of trafficking;

(f)       Provide the Committee with comprehensive disaggregated data on the number of investigations, prosecutions and sentences handed down for human trafficking, and the provision of redress to the victims.

Arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons deprived of liberty

13.      Bearing in mind its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/NZL/CO/5, para. 9) and   the   Subcommittee   on   Prevention   of   Torture   (SPT)   country   visit   report (CAT/OP/NZL/1, paras. 33-34), the Committee is concerned at reports that, despite remedial measures taken by authorities, overcrowding remains a problem in many places of deprivation of liberty. The Committee is concerned at reports that, in a number of places of deprivation of liberty, the material conditions and health-care services, in particular mental health  services,  are  inadequate.  The  Committee  is  concerned  at  provisions  of  the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 which, inter alia, authorises mandatory strip-searching of prisoners in a broad range of circumstances. Finally, the Committee is further concerned at information received that the rate of violence between prisoners and the rate of assaults of prisoners on guards is higher in the privately-run Mt. Eden Corrections Facility than in other comparable public correction facilities. (arts. 2, 11 and 16).

The State party should strengthen its efforts to bring the conditions of detention in all places of deprivation of liberty in line with relevant international norms and standards, including inter alia the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules), in particular by:

(a)     Continuing to reduce overcrowding, particularly through the wider application of non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment, in the light of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (Tokyo Rules);

(b)      Ensuring that adequate mental health care is provided for all persons deprived of their liberty;

(c)      Amending the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 to the extent required to remove inconsistencies with the provision of the Convention.

While taking note of the statement made by the Representatives of New Zealand that “contract-managed prisons must comply with the same domestic laws, international standards and obligations relating to prisoners welfare and management as publicly managed prisons”, the Committee recommends that the State Party should ensure that privately-run places of detention fully comply with those laws, standards and obligations.

Indigenous people in the criminal justice system

14.      While noting with satisfaction the efforts and subsequent measures taken by the State party to address the situation of indigenous people like, inter alia, the Turning of the Tide Prevention Strategy and the Creating Lasting Change 2011–2015 Strategy, the Committee remains concerned at information received that indigenous people continue to be  disproportionately affected  by  incarceration.  The  Committee  is  also  concerned  at information received that while making up 15% of the State Party’s population, Māori comprise 45% of arrests and over 50% of prison inmates, moreover more than 60% of female inmates are Māori (arts. 2, 11 and 16).

The  State  party  should  increase  its  efforts  to  address  the  overrepresentation of indigenous people in prisons and to reduce recidivism, in particular its underlying causes, by fully implementing the Turning of the Tide Prevention Strategy through the overall judicial system and by intensifying and strengthening community-based approaches with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders and increased participation of Māori civil society organizations.

Excessive use of seclusion in mental health facilities

15.    While welcoming the adoption of the Mental Health and Addiction Service Development Plan 2012-2017 aiming at eliminating the practice of seclusion in the State Party and the commitment by the Ministry of Social Development to the Minister responsible that all historic abuse claims with respect to that department will be closed by the end of 2020, the Committee is concerned at information received on the persistent use of seclusion in Mental Health facilities for purposes of punishment, discipline and protection, as  well  as  for  health-related reasons.  The  Committee  further  notes  that  a significant number of victims have been secluded for more than 48 hours and that Māori are more likely to be secluded. The Committee is concerned at information that the State Party is continuing to include in new psychiatric facilities cells specifically designed for solitary confinement.  The Committee is concerned that, according to information received from non-governmental sources, sixty to seventy percent of people in detention have either a learning disability or mental illness. The Committee further notes that the State party failed to investigate or to hold any individual accountable for the nearly 200 allegations of torture and ill-treatment against minors at Lake Alice hospital. The Committee also notes the lack of relevant statistical information (art. 16, 11 and 14).

The State party should:

(a)      Limit the use of solitary confinement and seclusion as a measure of last resort, for as short a time as possible, under strict supervision and with the possibility of judicial review;

(b)      Prohibit  the  use  of  solitary  confinement  and  seclusion  for  juveniles, persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, pregnant women, women with infants and breastfeeding mothers, in prison and in all health-care institutions, both public and private;

(c)      Conduct   prompt,   impartial   and   thorough   investigations   into   all allegations of ill-treatment in prisons and health-care institutions, both public and private; prosecute persons suspected of ill-treatment and, if found guilty, ensure that they  are  punished  according  to  the  gravity  of  their  acts;  and  provide  effective remedies and redress to the victims;

(d)      Compile and regularly publish comprehensive disaggregated data on the use of solitary confinement and seclusion.

Juvenile justice

16.      Bearing in mind its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/NZL/CO/5, para. 8), the Committee remains concerned at the gaps in the protection of juveniles in the State party’s criminal justice system (arts. 11 and 16).

The State party should take the necessary measures to ensure the proper functioning of the justice system in compliance with international standards. In particular, the State party should:

(a)      Ensure full implementation of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules  for  the  Administration of  Juvenile  Justice  (Beijing  Rules)  and  the  United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines);

(b)      Ensure  that  juvenile  detainees  and  prisoners  under  18  are  held separately from adults, in line with the provisions of the Beijing Rules (rules 13.4 and

26.3) and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their

Liberty (rules 17, 28 and 29);

(c)      Resort to alternatives to incarceration, taking into account the provisions of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (Tokyo Rules) and the Bangkok Rules.

Use of electrical discharge weapons (tasers)

17.      While welcoming the establishment of a Community Tactical Options Reference Group to liaise over the issues relating to the use of force by the police confirming the information provided by the delegation that the use of  electrical discharge weapons is tightly regulated and controlled in each jurisdiction and  is subjected to oversight and scrutiny processes, the Committee is concerned at reports of cases of inappropriate or excessive use (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16).

The State party should ensure that electrical discharge weapons are used exclusively in extreme and limited situations, where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury, as a substitute for lethal weapons, and by trained law enforcement personnel only. The State party should revise the regulations governing the use of such weapons, with a view to establishing a high threshold for their use, and expressly prohibit their use on children and pregnant women. The Committee is of the

view that electrical discharge weapons should not form part of the equipment of custodial staff in places of deprivation of liberty. The Committee recommends the State  party  to  provide  more  stringent instructions to  law  enforcement personnel authorized to use electric discharge weapons, and to strictly monitor and supervise their use through mandatory reporting and review of each use.

Non-refoulement and mandatory immigration detention

18.      While welcoming the information provided by the State Party on the comprehensive system put into place to assist asylum seekers, the Committee is concerned at bills introduced into Parliament that would reduce some of the existing statutory standards of protection of asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants, in particular at the Immigration Amendment Act 2013, which inter alia allows the detention of “mass arrivals groups” of asylum seekers for up to six months, and at policies and practices currently applied in relation to persons who, irregularly arrive in the State party (arts. 2, 3, 11 and 16).

The State party should adopt the necessary measures with a view to:

(a)      Ensure  full  compliance  with  its  obligations  under  article  3  of  the

Convention in respect of non-refoulement;

(b)      Ensure that detention should be only applied as a  last resort, when determined to be strictly necessary and proportionate in each individual case, and for as short a period as possible;

(c)      Establish, in case it is necessary and proportionate that a person should be detained, statutory time limits for detention and access to an effective judicial remedy to review the necessity of the detention;

(d)      Adopt all necessary measures to  ensure that stateless persons whose asylum claims were refused and refugees with adverse security or character assessments are not held in detention indefinitely, including by resorting to  non- custodial measures and alternatives to closed immigration detention.

(e)       Ensure  that  effective  measures  are  in  place  to  identify  as  early  as possible all victims of torture among asylum seekers and among other persons in need of  international protection, and provide them with priority access to  the refugee determination procedure and access to treatment for urgent conditions;

(f)        Provide a thorough medical and psychological examination and report, considering application of the procedures set out in the Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol), by adequately trained independent health experts, with the support of professional interpreters, when signs of torture or traumatization have been detected during the personal interviews and, on that basis, provide access to immediate rehabilitation;

(g)      Provide regular training on the procedures established in the Istanbul Protocol to asylum officers and health experts participating in the asylum determination procedure, including training on detecting psychological traces of torture and on gender-sensitive approaches.

Redress, including compensation and rehabilitation, for victims of torture

19.      While welcoming the commitment of the State Party to provide compensation to victims of historic claims of abuse, the Committee is concerned at the fact that victims have not  been  awarded  with  full  redress,  including  compensation  and  rehabilitation,  as prescribed by general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of article 14 by States

parties. The Committee further notes that the Prisoners' and Victims' Claims (Continuation and Reform) Amendment Act 2013 restricts the circumstances in which the courts are able to award compensation to prisoners victim of acts that amount to torture and ill-treatment.

Recalling its general comment No. 3 (2012), the Committee recommends the State Party to amend the provisions of the Prisoners’ and Victims' Claims (Continuation and Reform) Amendment Act 2013 that might be inconsistent with the aim of the Convention. The State party should establish the legislative and structural framework necessary for ensuring that all victims of torture receive redress, including medical and psychological assistance, full compensation and the means for full rehabilitation.

Withdrawal of reservation to article 14

20.      While  noting  the  explanations  provided  by  the  delegation,  the  Committee  is concerned that the State party has maintained its reservation to article 14 of the Convention, which leaves at the discretion of the Attorney-General of New Zealand the right to award compensation to torture victims, is incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Convention, as well as with its obligation to ensure the rights of victims of torture to a fair and adequate compensation including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. (art. 14)

The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation (CAT/C/NZL/CO/5, para. 14) and urges the State party to consider withdrawing its reservation to article 14 of the Convention and ensure the provision of fair and adequate compensation through its civil jurisdiction to all victims of torture.

Follow-up procedure

21.      The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 15 May 2016, follow-up information in response to the Committee’s recommendations contained in paragraph 9 concerning the National Preventive Mechanism, paragraph 10 on the Independent Police Conduct  Authority and  paragraph 15  on  excessive  use  of  seclusion in  mental  health facilities.

Other issues

22.     The Committee invites the State party to become a party to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

23.      The State party is  requested to  disseminate widely the  report submitted to  the Committee and the present concluding observations, in all appropriate languages, through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations.

 24.      The State party is invited to submit its next report, which will be its seventh periodic report, by 15 May 2019. For that purpose, the Committee will, in due course, transmit to the State party a list of issues prior to reporting, considering that the State party has accepted to report to the Committee under the optional reporting procedure.