The Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders records harrowing experiences of sexual abuse suffered by thousands of children in schools across Ireland over decades. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (the ‘Commission’) welcomes the Report’s focus on the need for a survivor-focused approach, including the need for redress and other appropriate restorative justice measures.
Much of the discussion since the publication of the Scoping Report on Tuesday evening has rightly focused on the testimonies of abuse survivors, some of whom were especially vulnerable. Survivors have described the depraved actions of individual abusers, and the failures of religious orders in charge of schools.
It is important also, however, to remember that the State also bears significant responsibility for the abuse suffered historically by children in schools. This has been clear, as a matter of law, since 2014, when Louise O’Keeffe won her case before the European Court of Human Rights (the ‘ECtHR’) in Strasbourg.
The ECtHR ruled that the State had been aware of the level of sexual crime by adults against minors in Ireland. It noted that the State should, therefore, have been aware of potential risks to children’s safety, when it relinquished control of the education of the vast majority of young children to religious denominations. The ECtHR held that the State had an obligation to protect children in State-funded schools. It noted that until 1991 (for primary schools) and 1992 (for secondary schools) there had been no appropriate child protection framework put in place by the State in Irish schools. Accordingly, the ECtHR ruled the State had breached Louise O’Keeffe’s rights under the European Convention of Human Rights. Ms O’Keeffe was awarded €84,000 in compensation from the State, (link to radio interview with Commission Member Noeline Blackwell).
Therefore, and without prejudice to the responsibility of individuals or religious orders to survivors, it has been clear for the past decade that the State has had a legal responsibility to make redress to abuse survivors for its own failure to protect children in schools by failing to put child protection measures in place until the early 1990s.
However, despite this clear legal obligation, the State has persistently failed to put in place a fair and adequate redress scheme as it is required to do by law.
This failure by the State has forced individual survivors to endure further delays, retraumatisation and the risk of significant financial exposure, by having to commence High Court proceedings to vindicate their rights. Recently, in June 2024, the State settled 10 such cases as the matter was finally about to go to hearing, paying each survivor the redress payment of €84,000 that they are entitled to.
For years now, the Commission has raised the issue of significant barriers faced by survivors of historic child sexual abuse in schools in Ireland in accessing redress for the State’s failure to protect their rights on multiple occasions, most recently at an exceptional hearing at the Council of Europe in May 2024 also attended by Louise O’Keeffe.
The Commission notes comments from the Government that it has a moral obligation to ensure justice for abuse survivors and redress. In fact, there is an ECtHR judgment requiring the State, for the past 10 years, to accept its part of the responsibility for failing to protect children from sexual abuse in schools over decades, and to provide redress – right now – in line with its legal obligations under the O’Keeffe judgment.
Therefore, we again repeat our call on the Government to fully implement the ECtHR’s judgment of O’Keeffe v. Ireland and to establish, without further delay, a redress scheme providing compensation from the State of €84,000 to survivors of sexual abuse, in line with the legal entitlements.
We also note and welcome that the Scoping Inquiry Report includes other recommendations regarding other forms of restorative justice for abuse survivors. Any restorative justice programme must be available to all survivors and must not repeat the State’s past mistake imposing arbitrary and discriminatory pre-conditions on access. Any such system must cover all schools, primary and secondary, whether run by religious orders or lay teachers.
Deirdre Malone, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Director said,
“One instance of abuse recorded against a child is one too many. This report details systemic abuse of the worst kind, suffered by thousands of children, over decades. A fair, accessible and inclusive redress scheme, established immediately, is the minimum appropriate response that human dignity – and law – require.”END/ For further information, please contact: Sarah Clarkin, IHREC Communications Manager, 01 852 9641 / 087 468 7760 sarah.clarkin@ihrec.ie Follow us on twitter @_IHREC