A new report into Ireland's forced and secret adoption system and related historical abuse has recommended a new process of investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes.
A three-year examination of the issue has been carried out by the Clann Project - a joint initiative of the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and law firm Hogan Lovells.
The group has now published its final report, drawing on 77 witness statements and makes eight recommendations to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.
It urges the commission to recommend a new process of investigation that is open to all stakeholders and has the primary goal of creating access to information.
It recommends that a State apology should be issued to all those affected, as well as the establishment of a specific unit to investigate criminal allegations.
Other recommendations include redress and reparations (primarily in the form of access to information); acknowledgement by religious orders and church hierarchies; and 'active and ongoing' memorialisation and research.
It also calls for all State records relating to Magdalene Laundries to be publicly released.
'Compounding the abuse suffered in the past'
Claire McGettrick, co-director of the Clann Project, said witnesses described a "situation of marginalisation, powerlessness and discrimination" that continues due to personal and family records being withheld.
She observed: "In addition, the administrative records held by the State and private bodies are being kept entirely secret. This is compounding the abuse suffered in the past.
"No other form of redress will be meaningful without first abandoning this insistence on secrecy and treating people with dignity."
Her co-director Dr Maeve O’Rourke added: "The insistence on secrecy is causing ongoing human rights violations. There is a 'right to truth' under European and international law for victims and survivors, and for the general public, where gross human rights violations have occurred in a country.
"It is time for the State to do what is right and tell the truth. It is the first step in restoring dignity to people who have suffered, and in ensuring that these abuses never happen again."
The publication of the report has been welcomed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).
The organisation's executive director, Liam Herrick, said: "The report provides compelling evidence that arbitrary detention, forced labour, forced and illegal adoption, and inhuman and degrading treatment occurred on a systematic basis throughout the network of institutions and agencies that were tasked by the State with ‘caring’ for unmarried families.
"Most importantly, the Clann Report highlights that human rights violations are ongoing, because people who suffered in the past are still being denied access to their own records and to the administrative records of the bodies involved in running the system.”
