News Desk

The Advocate Post, Wellington: Recent investigations have shown that about 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults suffered abuse while under the state and faith-based care in New Zealand over the last 70 years.

This tells us that almost one in three children in the care from 1950 to 2019 were subject to some sort of abuse, including rape, electric shocks and forced labor, according to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry. The commission’s final report – which became New Zealand’s biggest and most costly inquiry to date – follows a six-year investigation into the lives and experiences of almost 3,000 people.

The respondent pool mostly consisted of disadvantaged and heavily marginalized communities, including Maori and Pacific people, and those with disabilities. More than 2,300 survivors spoke to the inquiry, revealing that abuse had almost always started from the first day.

Among them, Maori and Pacific survivors suffered the highest levels of physical abuse and were degraded for their skin color and ethnicity. The report also found that in social welfare settings, children and people put in foster care experienced the most amount of sexual abuse. The report said that it was a national disgrace that this many children and adults suffered abuse and neglect under the care of the state and faith-based institutions.