Campaigners to raise significant concerns over exhumations at mother and baby home sites
Memorial tributes of toys and flowers at the 'Little Angels' memorial plot near the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork. Campaigners will today tell an Oireachtas committee of their concerns over a proposed law concerning the excavation and exhumation of such sites. Picture: Laura Hutton
New laws to allow for the exhumation of remains on mother and baby home sites pose significant problems from both a human rights and transitional justice perspective, it has been claimed.
It is believed that up to 800 babies are buried in a mass grave on the site of the Tuam mother and baby home. The draft legislation would allow for the excavation, exhumation, and reinterment of these remains as well as at other potential sites such as Bessborough in Cork.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is to call for significant reform of a proposed burials bill when it comes before an Oireachtas committee on the matter today. Campaigners including Catherine Corless and Maeve O’Rourke will be among others to give their opinion to the committee.
The ICCL wants to see the legislation amended to provide for relevant powers for existing bodies such as the coroner to address institutional burials.
“In its current form, the general scheme of this bill has significant problems from both a human rights and transitional justice perspective,” the ICCL is due to say.
The ICCL says a lack of investigation by the coroner “does not stand up” for a number of reasons, and says that the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions has stated that mass graves are crime scenes.
The group is also calling on the Government to ratify the UN Convention against Enforced Disappearances and says this provides a clear roadmap for dealing with enforced disappearances and is relevant for addressing mass graves and institutional burials.
The ICCL says the burials bill must be just “one component” of the Government’s overall response to the “severe and systematic human rights violations” that occurred in mother and baby homes.
“There is a broader need for the Government to respect its human rights obligations and transitional justice principles throughout this response and we call on it to do so,” the ICCL will say.
Ms Corless will tell the committee that the Tuam home tragedy “fell silent” within a month of being uncovered in 2017.
“Can you imagine the pain that this caused to the families of those in that sewage tank?” she will ask.“Overall, we consider that the bill lacks a rights-based approach, a survivor-centred approach, and is inconsistent with a transitional justice approach,” the ICCL will say.
