August 31, 2017
Abuse claimants welcome UN backing
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A laywer acting for claimants seeking a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry into the historic abuse of children and young people in state care has welcomed the call by a United Nations Committee for an independent inquiry.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination made the call after hearing from Human Rights Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy, who highlighted how welfare policies still result in a disproportionate number of tamariki Maori being taken from their whanau.
Andrew Erueti says people like claimant Tyrone Marks, who spent their childhoods in youth institutions, deserve justice.
"What we are hoping to do is through is through the Waitangi Tribuanl and this other work, international human rights, is give him a fair hearing where there is an independent inquiry into the reasons he was taken into state care, adequate compensation and a searching inquiry into the systemic reasons that led to the institutionalisation of so many of our Maori kids," he says,
Other first world countries like Australia and Canada have held independent inquiriies into the widespread practice of taking aboriginal children away from their families into state care.
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