A damning report, presented to New Zealand's Parliament on Wednesday, details decades of abuse by state and faith-based organizations. It says roughly 200,000 people, including children, young people and vulnerable adults, suffered abuse in care facilities between 1950 and 2019. The report calls it an "unthinkable national catastrophe."
The six-year investigation by the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, the largest and most expensive probe in the country's history, found that for generations, people at these facilities had been subjected to electric shock, medical experimentation, starvation, beatings, forced labor, and rape. Many of the victims were from the country's disadvantaged and marginalized communities, including the native Māori and Pacific Islanders, as well as people with disabilities.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologized and said, "This is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand's history as a society and as a state. We should have done better, and I am determined that we will do so."
Investigators spoke to more than 2,300 survivors who detailed how the abuse often started from the day they arrived. Most of the survivors are now over 50 years old, according to the inquiry.
The inquiry reported that even when these abuses were brought to the attention of government or religious leaders, those accused were rarely held accountable. The report made 138 recommendations, including setting up a Care Safe Agency responsible for overseeing the sector, and called for public apologies from the pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the Anglican Church, and the government of New Zealand.
In a statement, the Catholic Church in New Zealand said it "will ensure that action follows our review of the Inquiry's findings." The Anglican Church in New Zealand released a statement saying, "We acknowledge and take full responsibility for our failures to provide the safe, caring and nurturing environment those who have been in our care had a right to expect and to receive."
New Zealand's prime minister said an official apology will come in November. His government will also reveal how much it's expected to pay victims in compensation.
The report said the average lifetime cost to survivors was estimated in 2020 to be more than half a million dollars per person, while the economic cost of the abuse may have cost the state up to $130 billion when taking into consideration everything from increased mental and physical health care costs to crime and homelessness.
Dozens of survivors were on hand when the inquiry was released to Parliament. They said they felt vindicated by its findings.
"For decades they told us we made it up," Toni Jarvis told the Reuters news agency. "So, this today is historic and it's an acknowledgement. It acknowledges all the survivors that have been courageous enough to share their stories."
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