by YogiBear | Jun 15, 2018 | News, Public Inquiry
Deeply personal and traumatic accounts of historic abuse in state care were given to police without the knowledge of those concerned.
A judge has said the abuse claimants were “some of the most vulnerable people in New Zealand society” and distrusted state agencies.
She made an order to stop the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) passing on information, provided for court proceedings, without the claimant’s consent.
Published in Stuff
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Jun 4, 2018 | News
A “vital” new 24/7 helpline has been launched to support the thousands of New Zealanders who experience sexual harm each year.
‘Safe to Talk’ (He pai ki te kōrero) is a confidential text, phone and email service available to anyone affected by sexual harm in any way – both survivors as well as perpetrators.
Published in Stuff.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | May 25, 2018 | News, Public Inquiry
Just months after the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse issued its final report, New Zealand is beginning its own royal commission – and the nation’s Catholic bishops are asking its institutions not to be excluded from scrutiny.
A royal commission is the highest form of inquiry in most countries where Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, including Australia and New Zealand.
Right now, the New Zealand royal commission will look into youth detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and orphanages, as well as any government care services contracted out to private institutions.
Published in the Crux.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Apr 25, 2018 | News, Public Inquiry
A Royal Commission on historic abuse in state care will “fail” survivors – including those still suffering in Otago – unless faith-based institutions are included, a campaigner says.
The call came from Liz Tonks, the head of a support network for survivors of abuse in faith-based institutions, as consultation on the draft terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care entered its final week.
But Ms Tonks, who met Royal Commission chairman Sir Anand Satyanand yesterday to discuss her submission, said there was no sign of a “significant” change in the scope of the inquiry.
Published in the Otago Daily Times
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, News
Published in the International Journal of Public Health here >>
Abstract
We aimed to assess intimate partner violence (IPV) among men and women from six cities in six European countries. Four IPV types were measured in a population-based multicentre study of adults (18-64 years; n = 3,496). Sex- and city-differences in past year prevalence were examined considering victims, perpetrators or both and considering violent acts’ severity and repetition. Male victimization of psychological aggression ranged from 48.8 % (Porto) to 71.8 % (Athens) and female victimization from 46.4 % (Budapest) to 70.5 % (Athens).
Male and female victimization of sexual coercion ranged from 5.4 and 8.9 %, respectively, in Budapest to 27.1 and 25.3 % in Stuttgart. Male and female victims of physical assault ranged from 9.7 and 8.5 %, respectively, in Porto, to 31.2 and 23.1 % in Athens. Male victims of injury were 2.7 % in Östersund and 6.3 % in London and female victims were 1.4 % in Östersund and 8.5 % in Stuttgart. IPV differed significantly across cities (p < 0.05).
Men and women predominantly experienced IPV as both victims and perpetrators with few significant sex-differences within cities. Results support the need to consider men and women as both potential victims and perpetrators when approaching IPV.
Intimate partner violence: a study in men and women from six European countries (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272518443_Intimate_partner_violence_a_study_in_men_and_women_from_six_European_countries [accessed Mar 06 2018].
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Feb 26, 2018 | News, Public Inquiry
From Radio NZ here >>
New Zealand’s plan to leave the Church and other non-state groups out of the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse is getting some bad press in Australia today.
The Newcastle Herald has gone big with a story of Australian survivors of abuse afraid their New Zealand counterparts won’t get justice.
Joanne McCarthy, the journalist who did in Australia what the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team did in the US to break open the clerical sex abuse scandal, has interviewed them.
The approach being taken here was “completely unacceptable”, she said.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Jan 31, 2018 | Articles, News, Public Inquiry
From an original article here on stuff.co.nz >>
It is disappointing that a government inquiry into past abuse of children will be limited to those cases which originated in state care. An opportunity to address systemic abuse in non-government institutions, and particularly religious organisations, is likely to be lost.
The inquiry is one of the Government’s pledges for its first 100 days in office and will be announced shortly. However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has already said that inquiries will begin with “the harm that we (the State) had direct responsibility for”.
Victims’ groups have called on the Government to follow Australia’s example and include non-governmental organisations such as churches, charities, community groups and sports clubs in the inquiry. For now, at least, the Government appears to be ruling this out.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Jan 19, 2018 | Articles, News, Public Inquiry
By Gordon Campbell, from an original article here on scoop.co.nz >>
Apparently, PM Jacinda Ardern has chosen to exclude faith-based institutions from the government’s promised inquiry into the abuse of children in state care. Any role for religious institutions – eg the Catholic Church – would be only to observe and to learn from any revelations that arise from the inquiry’s self-limiting focus on state-run institutions:
[Ardern] said the primary role of the inquiry was to look at the state’s responsibility….She said any religious institution with concerns needed to look at the issue, ask what they have done about the issues and their own history.
Such a narrowing of focus would be unfortunate, for a whole variety of reasons, and not merely because a more wide-ranging commission of inquiry in Australia found a high prevalence of children in care being sexually assaulted within religious institutions.
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Jan 19, 2018 | Articles, News
One in Three, based in Australia is a diverse group of male and female professionals – academics, researchers, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, lawyers, health promotion workers, trainers and survivor/advocates.
They issued a press release on the 16th January 2018 on domestic violence. You can read this below. Visit their website here: oneinthree.com.au
1IN3+media+release+16-01-18
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Dec 11, 2017 | From the Chairmain's Desk
From the Chairman’s Desk (Dec 2017)
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 30, 2017 | Articles, News
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of paedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United.
Watch the film on Maori Television here >>
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 28, 2017 | Articles, News
Bristlecone Newsletter, November 2017 (web)
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2017 | News, Public Inquiry
The government has reaffirmed its commitment to an independent inquiry into the sexual abuse of those in state care.
The news comes as survivors of abuse call for an investigation similar to Australia’s Royal Commission.
“It’s a very difficult thing to face, it’s a painful moment in a country’s history to acknowledge those past injustices,” Patrick O’Leary from the Australian Royal Commission said.
Judge Carolyn Henwood, heard from over 1000 New Zealand victims in her seven years on the confidential listening service.
“We need something independent because we haven’t yet got accountability and we haven’t got a pathway forward for the future as to how we’re going to give an access to justice,” she said.
A straight forward message coming from abuse survivor Jim Goodwin.
“We have to do this, as a country we have to do this.”
This article on TVNZ here >>
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2017 | Articles, News
Update 21 December
MSSAT Aotearoa endorses a submission from the Network of Survivors of Faith-based Institutional Abuse and their Supporters for the extension of a public enquiry into the abuse of children in state care to include all faith-based institutions. The submission presents the rationale for the extension of the enquiry and and the risks of not doing so.
You can download the submission here >>
Update: 3 December 2017
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed an inquiry into abuse suffered in state care will be independent.
She told TV3’s programme
The Hui this morning the stories she’s heard have truly shocked her.
“There is no independent way to complain about what happens to you in our system and that is unacceptable, when you have powers like that held by the state – there has to be an independent complaints process.
“I want to know more, we are going into this with an open heart and with a chance to do things differently and that’s what I want to come out of this,” Ms Ardern said.
Read the full story here >>
The attendees at the 2017 International Conference of the South South Institute, Christchurch, New Zealand, 5-10 November 2017, have passed the following resolution and ask that it be presented to the Prime Minister of New Zealand by Phillip Chapman (Chair) and Ken Clearwater (National Advocate) for the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, Aotearoa New Zealand (MSSAT Aotearoa) who are hosting this conference.
Download the Resolution here >>
View the Resolution below:
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by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2017 | News, Public Inquiry
A Dunedin survivor of sexual abuse says he and others like him are ready for a long fight for justice.
A resolution was passed in Christchurch yesterday at the South-South Institute conference, which is organised by the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, asking the Government to commit to a Royal Commission or similar level of inquiry into the institutional abuse of children in New Zealand.
The resolution asks that any New Zealand inquiry be modelled on the Australian Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Full article on the Otago Daily Times here >>
by MSSAT Aotearoa | Nov 9, 2017 | News, Public Inquiry
Government departments could be “sheltering” child abuse perpetrators as calls for a Royal Commission into historical state care abuse remain unanswered, a judge says.
On Wednesday, experts outlined what they believe an independent inquiry into child abuse in state care before 1992 should look like.
The new Government promised an inquiry in its 100-day plan, but what shape that will take remains to be seen.
Full article on Stuff.nz here >>
