Mother and baby home residents subjected to 'involuntary detention'
Rather than merely critique the findings of the commission, the group of 25 experts in law and criminal justice have produced an alternative report based on the evidence available to the commission. Stock picture
Residents of mother and baby homes were subjected to involuntary detention, forced labour, and illegal adoption an alternative expert review of the commission's report has found.
The independent analysis, due to be published this week, strongly rejects many of the findings of the Mother and Baby Home Commission's report and also blames the State for the abuses carried out in these institutions.
Legal experts have been working on rewriting the commission's executive summary since March, but have said that the "worst flaws are beyond our power to repair".
The group of 25 academics, with expertise in human rights law, family law, and criminal justice, spent the past four months scrutinising the report and found that the "Commission used a narrow account of Irish legal history to excuse the abuses detailed across the Report".
The authors say they "profoundly disagree" with the commission report’s findings and approach.
The review, due to be launched on Wednesday, finds the State is responsible for several mass abuses including breaches of human and constitutional rights.
It maintains that the State did far more than indirectly contribute to or condone these abuses, and instead actively and deliberately supported abusive institutions.
This goes against the main commission report which found that "responsibility for the harsh treatment of women and their children rests primarily with the fathers of the children and with the mothers’ immediate family".
Unlike the commission's executive summary, which acknowledged there was "some evidence of minor physical abuse", the alternative review has found substantial evidence of abuse amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment, including of pregnant women, children, and survivors of sexual abuse.
Similarly, the review finds that there is significant evidence of coerced adoption, amounting in many cases to forced adoption. This finding directly contradicts the commission's executive summary which states that there was "very little evidence" of children forcibly taken by their mothers, however, it did accept that women had little choice.
The document, which is intended to read as a new executive summary to the report, will be launched at an online event this Wednesday. While the launch, hosted by Technological University Dublin (TUD) is fully subscribed, the event will be recorded and the authors are seeking feedback and suggested amendments from affected people and academics.
The alternative review also hits out at the commission's treatment of the 550 survivors who came forward to provide evidence to a confidential committee that ran in tandem with the main body of work.
Commission member Prof Mary Daly recently sparked controversy when she suggested that the testimony had been discounted and not given the same weight as other evidence provided, as the witness accounts had not been subject to cross-examination.
Speaking at an Oxford University online seminar, Prof Daly said it would have taken "hundreds of hours" of cross-checking and interrogation to integrate the confidential inquiry into the report.
"We have done a job and I think let it stand," she added.
The expert group disagrees with the claim that the testimony given to the confidential committee was impermissible under Irish law.
"The confidential committee testimony was anonymised, so that it cannot be reliably used to draw adverse conclusions about individual people or institutions.
"However, that testimony could corroborate and add weight to evidence already tested by the Investigative Committee, and strengthen our general, systemic findings," the 25 academics have said in a piece in today's .
It comes as children's minister Roderic O'Gorman prepares to bring the details of a mother and baby home redress scheme to Cabinet.
Mr O'Gorman has already indicated that he will have the scheme ready before the final Cabinet meeting of this Dáil term along with a six-month progress update on other measures.
The group suggests that all women who were admitted to mother and baby homes should be included in this scheme and not just those who were resident in them before 1973 as the Commission recommended.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
