The possibility of the HSE running prison healthcare services instead of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is currently under discussion, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) has heard.

The possibility of the HSE running prison healthcare services instead of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is currently under discussion, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) has heard.

The Government will today answer questions from the UN over the Magadelene Laundries, industrial schools and mother and baby homes.

The UN has today called on the government to explain what further investigations it intends to carry out into the Magdalene Laundries, industrial schools and mother-and-baby homes.

A lack of mental health services in Irish prisons is being raised at the UN in Geneva today.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties says it will be stressing the importance of inspections and reporting when it addresses the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva today.

The United Nations will today hear how survivors of institutional abuse in Ireland have been treated, following the Ryan Report.

Magdalene campaigners have questioned why a State apology was given to laundry survivors when the Government denies the State has any liability in the matter.

A religious order that ran two Magdalene Laundries told the Government that its decision not to contribute any money to the redress scheme for survivors was based on the findings of the McAleese Report.

Irish law criminalises women and girls for having abortions and could see them get 14 years in jail. Niall Behan says it it time to change it to put women’s health first

China has rejected a call from a United Nations rights watchdog to halt torture of detainees, saying the group’s recommendations were based on unverified information and that it should “improve its work style.”

Ireland is eight years late in submitting a major report to the UN on tackling discrimination against women.

Slowly and forensically, layer by granular layer, the human rights treaty bodies have been building a three-dimensional model of Ireland’s compliance with its international obligations, writes Mark Kelly.

New research has cast "serious doubt" on one of the key findings of the McAleese report concerning the length of time women spent in Magdalene laundries.

Survivors of Magdalene laundries will begin to receive enhanced pensions and weekly top-up payments from the Department of Social Protection in the coming week, as part of the redress package designed by Mr Justice John Quirke.

Adoption, children’s and human rights organisations have welcomed the decision by the Department of Children to set up a statutory commission to investigate practices, deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at the country’s mother-and-baby homes.

The dozens of teddy bears left at the gates of a Cork City mother and baby home in memory of the babies and children who died there, were moved overnight to a Little Angels’ plot within its grounds.

The order which ran the mother-and-baby home in Bessborough in Cork initially refused to transfer files relating to controversial vaccine trials to the HSE.

The UN has again criticised the refusal by the four orders than ran the Magdalene laundries to offer any money towards compensating survivors.

Women whose pelvises were sawed in half to facilitate childbirth are to bring their fight for justice to the UN as they accuse the Government of refusing to admit they were wronged.

Two of the four Orders which ran the Magdalene laundries have reaffirmed their refusal to offer any financial contribution to the compensation fund for survivors.

Given the chance to highlight victims’ stories, the McAleese committee sided with powerful institutions once more, writes Simon McGarr

The UN has called on the Vatican to investigate the Magdalene laundries so those responsible for the abuse suffered in the institutions can be prosecuted.

Women who underwent symphysiotomies are to keep up their fight for compensation in the courts after dismissing as “shameful” Government attempt to offer a no-fault redress scheme.

A number of Magdalene survivors have been offered state compensation payments reflecting much shorter lengths of stay than the women endured.

The Government has been told that its refusal to commission an independent investigation into the treatment of women in Magdalene Laundries is an issue that is “not going to go away”.

Justice For Magdalenes (JFM) Research has hit out at the Government’s response to UN criticism’s of the McAleese report as “an outrage” which “beggars belief”.

INCISIVE, clear, concise, RTÉ journalist, Séan O’Rourke, is dogged in his pursuit of a story.

A barrister who has represented victims of the Magdalene Laundries as a law student has been awarded a prestigious legal accolade in Britain.

The Government’s recent tough talk that religious orders should pay compensation to Magdalene survivors is at odds with its stance on the McAleese report, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

There was a mixed reaction among Magdalene Laundry survivors and representative groups to the recommendations in the Quirke Report.

The Leveson probe in the UK shows a determined chairman can make an enormous difference to an inquiry, writes Dan Buckley

A commission of inquiry into State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries should still be established by the Government because the focus of the McAleese report was too narrow, a leading human rights group has claimed.

Kathleen Whelan was one of about a dozen former Magdalene laundry survivors who travelled to Cork’s City Hall to meet the Lord Mayor as he signed a book of apologies for the women.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has roundly defended the McAleese Report into the Magdalene Laundries saying it was “an independent, comprehensive factual account”.

The UN committee which forced the Government to investigate the Magdalene Laundries has criticised the McAleese report into them as “incomplete” and lacking “many elements of a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation”.

The Justice for Magdalenes group has lodged a complaint with the UN Committee Against Torture, saying it is concerned that the Government has not complied with the committee's recommendations.

There were scenes of joy and gratitude outside Leinster House last night as victims cheered and whooped following the Taoiseach’s apology for the State and the people of Ireland’s involvement in the Magdalene laundries.

Survivors of the Magdalene laundries have quickly rejected the Taoiseach's apology, and demanded a fuller and more frank admission from government and the religious orders involved.

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) has expressed hope that the McAleese report published later today will lead to an apology and redress for those who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries.

MAY

A report on state involvement in the conditions in the Magdalene Laundries will be submitted to Government by the end of the year.

The Government’s response to the UN Committee Against Torture recommendations on the Magdalene Laundries issue has been termed “cynical” and “disingenuous”.

Justice for Magdalenes is to submit over 500 pages of newly gathered survivor testimony to Senator Martin McAleese — testimony in which women say they were imprisoned in Magdalene laundries and had worked without pay.