IRELAND
Irish Times
Marie O’Hallroan
The United Nations has sharply criticised the State’s approach to alleged abuse in Magdalene laundries and its claims that there was no basis to believe serious harm was done to women and girls in them.
The UN committee against torture in Geneva said it had received a “great deal of evidence that there has indeed been abuse”.
Rapporteur Felice Gaer referred to the McAleese report on the laundries and asked: “How can the McAleese report establish that there was no systematic abuse when the terms of reference did not extend to allegations of abuse?” or an investigation of such allegations.
She also asked if the State could claim there was no serious harm “when it made no public call for evidence”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.