News & Events

A man who survived torture as a teenager at the notorious Lake Alice psychiatric facility in the 1970s and had to go to the UN in his efforts to gain justice fears he will die before he sees appropriate financial compensation. Malcolm Richards has cancer and is waiting for hospital treatment after suffering a heart attack. But…

Falling victim to crime is a frightening event, with serious negative consequences for victims’ health, labour market participation, and human capital accumulation. Most existing studies on the impacts of victimisation focus on adult victims, but the group most likely to experience victimisation is youth. Who falls victim to crime? Aotearoa has some of the highest rates…

The Catholic Church has apologised again to survivors of abuse in its care, accepting most of the Royal Commission’s findings but not fully accepting several others. However, a survivor of abuse at a Catholic school has called the response “heart-breaking and appalling”, and said it was littered with “rhetoric and deflection”. Among the Royal Commission…

Te Ao Marama – developed over several years, these new best practice guidelines are judicial-led District Court initiative (applies to Family Court and Youth Justice, not High Court). It wants courts to be adopting solution-focused, therapeutic approaches through which participants feel understood in a fair hearing and supported with wrap-around services. The guidelines are currently heavily…

A service in response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Streamed live on 5 Sept 2024 at the Transitional Cathedral.

Almost 50 years after the horrific offending which ruined the lives of two of his former pupils, ex-teacher and former Marist religious brother Charles Afeaki on Wednesday night began a jail term for those crimes. Afeaki, now 82 years old, began a 25-month sentence for the sexual abuse he committed against two boys, then aged…

After decades hoping for change, one of the first abuse in care survivors to speak out has died before he could see it happen. His family and friends say survivors have had to wait too long. MADDY CROAD reports. Christina flicks through her folder of newspaper clippings until she stops at story from June 2002.…

Some senior public servants implicated in the state abuse cover-up remain in positions of power – including Solicitor-General Una Jagose and Education Secretary Iona Holsted. Now the minister leading the Government’s response to the watershed report has put officials on notice. The minister in charge of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry…

NZ Royal Commission – Abuse in Care Reports Publications and other relevant information about the official New Zealand Royal Commission – Abuse in Care. Visit official website. Royal Commission Publications Other Commission Reports

From the Featherston girls’ home they were stuck in, Joyce Harris and her 14-year-old twin sister Toni planned an escape. They followed the railway tracks, which led them to the Remutaka Tunnel. Built in 1955, the tunnel is almost 9km long. It remains the country’s longest. “We walked through it and every so many feet…

The 112 politicians and senior public servants who oversaw decades of harm and neglect, plus those who have been asked to apologise. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care finds that a successive list of senior ministers and public servants were at fault for allowing, or failing to stop, an…