News & Events

Richard Old had been dead for about three weeks before anyone found him. And it wasn’t because he had no friends to check on him. He did. But Old was a survivor of sexual abuse and would isolate himself. He didn’t always want to interact with others. So the fact that he wasn’t answering his…

On November 12, the Prime Minister, alongside his ministers and a selection of public service heads, will offer a national apology for the abuse and torture that tens of thousands of children suffered at the hands of the state But as so many survivors have said since the Government tabled the Royal Commission of Inquiry…

Attorney-General Judith Collins says she continues to have confidence in Solicitor-General Una Jagose, despite calls for the head of Crown Law to step down for how she has handled the claims of state abuse survivors. Key survivor advocates have called for Jagose to be removed from her position as Solicitor-General. They say Jagose is conflicted by years…

The bureaucrat appointed to head the agency responding to victims of state abuse presented a report to the UN in 2015 that failed to acknowledge the torture that occurred at the adolescent unit at Lake Alice hospital. On Tuesday the Government announced the appointment of Rajesh Chhana as chief executive of the Crown Response Unit,…

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.…