Communist Romania > The Lost Children of Ceaușescu

 

The lost children of Romania's Ceaușescu dictatorship

Europe

From the show

Thirty-five years after the horrors of the Ceaușescu dictatorship were discovered in Romania, our reporters investigated one of the darkest episodes in the country's history – the squalid, state-run institutions where thousands of children were locked away and abused. 

An estimated 15,000 children died, mostly in so-called hospitals for those often misdiagnosed as severely disabled. 

While part of society is nostalgic for the Communist era, the work of collective memory and justice is far from complete.

By:

Bastien RENOUIL

Maria GERTH-NICULESCU

House Committee Report on Gender-based Violence Misses the Point

Gender-based violence report urges mandatory training for judges, RCMP

Status of Women committee report looks at sex assault and harassment - and how the justice system responds

By Joanna Smith, The Canadian Press 

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu chairs the House of Commons committee on the status of women, which has released a report on addressing violence against women and girls. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

All judges and RCMP officers should have to go through mandatory training on gender-based violence and sexual assault, says a new report from the House of Commons committee on the status of women.

"Acts of gender-based violence can prevent young women and girls from leading fulfilling lives as equal members of Canadian society," the committee said in a statement accompanying the release of the report on Monday.

"Young women and girls who are victimized experience both immediate and long-term physical and mental-health problems, reduced economic and social prosperity and lasting pain and suffering," the statement said.

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who chairs the committee that heard from 99 witnesses over the last year on what the federal government can do to reduce violence against women and girls, said the report's recommendations focused on campus sexual assault, harassment in public, such as when women are subject to cat-calling on the streets, and cyberviolence.

Are you serious? 'Cat-calling on the streets'? This is what you spent a year looking into when aboriginal children are committing suicide - which, if you are willing to look, you will find is directly associated with child sex abuse. Did you look into how many children are being abused in institutions in Canada other than Universities? Did you look into the effect of the easy availability of pornography and the effect of semi-pornographic electronic games on adolescents? That is the source of the 'culture of rape' in schools and universities. Did you look at the issue of child brides in Canada, or Female Genital Mutilation? Do you know how many children are sexually abused in Canada? Do you have any idea of the ratio?

Let me tell you that the ratio of girls who are sexually abused in Canada is about one in five, for boys about one in ten. Do you have any idea how many children that works out to? There are approximately 11 million children in Canada meaning 5.5 million of each sex, so one in five girls means 1.1 million girls are being, have been or will be abused in this century by the end of this year. It also means that 550,000 boys have, are, or will suffer a similar fate.

That's a total of 1.65 million children, but lest you be horrified by that number consider this, most of those children are being repeatedly abused. Statistically, 75-80% of abused children are repeatedly abused. God only knows how many times these children are abused, some, certainly only a few times, but there are many who are abused dozens of times and many hundreds of times and even a lot of trafficked women and children who are abused thousands of times. One Mexican trafficking victim claimed she was raped more than 43,000 times in about 10 years. 

And you are worried about cat-calling? OMG! Get over it and get serious!

Other recommendations include working with the provinces and territories to figure out how to require all colleges and universities to set up sexual assault centres and exploring whether the Criminal Code needs to explicitly include cyberviolence and online harassment, so long as it would not violate charter-protected freedom of speech.

Gladu said the report also referred to what she calls "rape culture," that can get in the way of helping survivors of sexual assault, including in the justice system.

The recommendation on the judiciary is similar to a private member's bill tabled by interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose that would require mandatory training for would-be judges on issues surrounding sexual assault.

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef is expected to unveil a federal gender-based violence strategy in the coming weeks, which she has said will look at ways to prevent violence and support its survivors, but also how to improve the criminal justice system.

4 years later and: Today, Aug 6, 2021, the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development announced agreements that will see almost $200 million over two years flow to shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations supporting women and children experiencing violence.

New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson said her party is issuing a supplementary report calling for the government to go a step further by developing a national action plan on gender-based violence that involves the provinces and territories.

"We heard one witness after the next say we need the provinces to work together and provide equivalent level of service and we need everybody pulling in the same direction and this patchwork makes women more vulnerable," she said in an interview last week.

'Violence a daily fact of life:' Monsef

At an event during a trip to New York last week to attend the UN commission on the status of women, Monsef spoke about how violence still affects the lives of women and girls around the world.

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef is expected to table a federal gender-based violence strategy in the coming weeks. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"Over these past four years, we have . . . seen a resurgence of feminism and the growth of a global, grassroots women's movement," Monsef said at a side event on how the health sector can respond to gender-based violence, according to a copy of her speaking notes provided by her office.

"But there has been no change in the numbers of women and girls for whom violence is a daily fact of life. Yes, it's 2017! And every day, countless women and girls still suffer at the hands of men," she said.

"The roots of gender-based violence are entwined in outdated, patriarchal values and they are tenacious," she said. "But so are we! As a movement and as allies, we have never been stronger, more connected and better prepared to take on this daunting adversity," she said.

Dirty Dealings Downunder - 3 Stories

Priest accused of child sex abuse in NSW may face retrial, hearing told

Royal commission considering application not to identify the Anglican priest, whose trial 15 years ago for abuse fell over

The alleged victim of the Anglican priest told the royal commission in Newcastle he would never recover from the impact of the church’s response. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Australian Associated Press

An Anglican priest accused of child sex abuse 15 years ago may face a retrial, a royal commission has been told.

The trial against the priest, given the pseudonym CKC, fell over when his defence team, made up of prominent church people, produced a register showing that the abuse could not have happened when the complainant said it did.

CKA, the man who alleged serious prolonged abuse by the priest, told a hearing of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Newcastle on Thursday he would never recover from the impact of the church’s response, which was to throw its full weight behind the priest who ruined his life, he said.

“I cannot get over the sheer frustration of dealing with bishops and clergy who, I believe, knew full well what CKC was doing and did nothing,” CKA said as he outlined how at every turn he was met by a wall of friends all focused on supporting one another.

It is simply disgusting how church executives close ranks to protect pedophile priests, knowing full well that the effect on his victims would be devastating, as if they hadn't suffered enough. They will stand before Christ one day and give an accounting, and it won't be pretty.

CKA, now 55, said his family life revolved around the church. He was 10 years old in 1971 when he met parish priest CKC.

For four years the priest molested him in ways that included oral sex and anal rape, CKA told the commission. CKA also alleges that CKC then began to molest his younger brother CKB.

CKA recalled his anger in 1977 when CKC was allowed to give a sermon at the funeral of his mother. His mother had reported the abuse to Bishop Ian Shevill before she died.

“It upset me terribly that the church degraded our family by allowing CKC to officiate at her funeral,” CKA said.

He catalogued how when he rang an Anglican sex abuse helpline, the phone was answered by Graeme Lawrence, the dean of Newcastle Cathedral who was himself a suspected child abuser and a colleague of CKC.

When CKC was reported to police in 2000 and brought to trial, his legal team consisted of Paul Rosser QC, who was deputy chancellor of the diocese, and solicitor Keith Allen, who was also heavily involved with the church.

They used CKA’s calls to the helpline in evidence and the fact he had sought psychiatric help to argue he was unstable.

When they produced a register that recorded CKC’s movements at the time of the alleged abuse, the prosecution told CKA they would not be pressing ahead with the trial, which had run for only two days.

The church then put out a statement that CKC had been acquitted, which was not true, he said.

Ian Temby, representing the state of New South Wales, has asked the commission not to identify CKC because it could prejudice a potential retrial.

The commission is considering the application.

Adelaide man arrested on historical

child sex abuse charges

A South Australian man will face court over child sex offences allegedly committed in the mid-1990s.

The 64-year-old from Adelaide's northeast was arrested on Friday by detectives from SAPOL's special crimes investigation branch.

He was bailed to face Adelaide Magistrates Court on September 2.

Queensland defies Royal Commission and sides with institutions against abuse victims

Queensland child sex abuse victims lose chance to challenge past compensation claims

Palaszczuk government says national redress scheme may be ‘more appropriate’ than overriding legal barriers preventing repeat claims

The Queensland attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, said: ‘Any legislative attempt to remove past deeds entered into with private institutions has the potential to have far-reaching and unintended consequences.’ Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

Joshua Robertson

The Queensland government has dashed the hopes of child sex abuse victims that its bill to remove age limits on compensation claims would clear the way for fresh lawsuits against churches and schools.

The government revealed it would not table laws to “remove past deeds” struck by institutions in lesser settlements based on the 21-year age limit on victims bringing civil actions.

It cited potential “far-reaching and unintended consequences” of legislating to override legal barriers preventing repeat claims, saying a national redress scheme may be “more appropriate”.

It follows the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, saying on Tuesday that the government would not use past deeds to block fresh claims by victims who had previously settled with state-run institutions.

Advocates were also assured by Palaszczuk and the attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, that the bill to be tabled on 18 August would comply with key recommendations around the removal of time limits by the royal commission into institutional child sex abuse.

They were that state and territory governments remove limits “with retrospective effect and regardless of whether or not a claim was subject to a limitation period in the past”.

The Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland, in a letter to Palaszczuk noting that the Indigenous community in particular bore the scars of institutional abuse, said a failure to strike down past settlements meant “you will not have complied with the recommendations of the royal commission”.

“The royal commission recommendations have clearly intended not to just remove time limits, but to remove all barriers which confront abuse survivors as they attempt to access justice through the Queensland courts system,” it said.

“We draw your attention to the urgency expressly legislating to revoke past deeds of release as until that is the case you will not have removed time limits for any of these victims.”

Indigenous lawyers encountered “recurring examples of the long-term damage inflicted upon individuals, families and communities as a result of child and sexual abuse”.

“[The Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland] wish to clearly emphasise the contribution child sexual abuse and abuse generally have on the unacceptable levels of Indigenous incarceration in this country, which have been noted to have increased exponentially over the past 25 years,” it said.

The association’s view on past deeds is reflected in a private member’s bill, drafted by the independent MP Rob Pyne with one abuse survivor and victims advocate. The survivor called on Palaszczuk to “stop playing politics with people’s lives” and adopt this measure of Pyne’s bill, whatever their political disagreements.

He said the government had sought to “gazump” Pyne’s bill after getting wind of it, a bill he said was drafted only after “the apparent lack of action coming from the government on this important issue”.

New South Wales and Victoria have both removed age limits on civil child sex abuse claims but excluded victims who had previously settled.

The abuse survivor said this created “the bizarre scenario” where one abuse victim could “sue for full true damages” while another victim of the same abuse who was “brave enough to already try holding the institution to account is locked into his meagre and unjust settlement for life”.

A statement from D’Ath’s office said: “For deeds where time limits were a factor that may have affected the quantum of damages, the options available under a national redress scheme may provide a more appropriate mechanism for survivors to seek just compensation from institutions than would be found through legislative means.

“Any legislative attempt to remove past deeds entered into with private institutions has the potential to have far-reaching and unintended consequences.”

This week the Palaszczuk government called for a national redress scheme, which hinges on the support of a federal government that has resisted the idea.

Tens of millions of dollars in possible future civil payouts to victims of child sexual abuse will hinge on legal moves by Queensland institutions, including the state’s most prestigious school, Brisbane Grammar.

The abuse survivor said the Queensland government’s explanation of its stance on past deeds was “rubbish” and a “defensive policy that protects guilty institutions at the expense of the needs of victims of abuse”.

“It is not for the government – who is a perpetrator of state institutional abuse – to decide what is in the best interests of a victim of their abuse,” he said. “It is up to the survivor of abuse to decide if it is in their own best interest to pursue redress under a redress scheme or to pursue full quantum of damages by direct litigation.”

The abuse survivor said Palaszczuk had already done “the hard work of convincing bureaucrats to expose the government to further financial liability for their abuses they have perpetrated in the past”.

“The premier stated the government would choose to not use deeds as a barrier to relitigating as a policy,” he said. “If it’s good enough for policy, make it law. Legislate so that every institution is bound by the same principles.”

Britain's Child Sex Abuse Inquiry to Focus on Churches and Politicians

The lines of inquiry into child sexual abuse are

set out by Judge Lowell Goddard

Goddard says her independent inquiry will look at allegations against current and former MPs and claims of cover-ups

Sandra Laville and Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian

Judge Lowell Goddard leads the inquiry

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales will investigate allegations against politicians living and dead and a variety of public institutions, the chair has announced.

Judge Lowell Goddard revealed details of the first investigations to be carried out in public into child sexual abuse dating back decades. They cover institutions such as the Church of England, the Roman Catholic church, Westminster, and children’s homes in Nottinghamshire and the London borough of Lambeth, plus child abuse on the internet, and grooming and sexual exploitation in Rochdale, Devon, Cornwall, Oxford and Rotherham.

The scale of the first 12 investigations to be announced – which will be followed by up to 13 more – was ambitious, Goddard admitted. “To run 12 investigations in parallel represents an organisational challenge that is unprecedented in a public inquiry in the United Kingdom,” she said. “We are determined to succeed and expect full co-operation of all institutions and individuals who can assist us in our work.”

While some of the investigations may take 18 months, others could last many years, but Goddard said she hoped to keep to her timetable of the inquiry lasting five years.

Goddard’s £17.9m investigation – the biggest public inquiry into institutional child abuse and accusations of establishment cover-ups ever held in England and Wales – will not be able to convict people or punish them. She has said she will not shrink from naming individuals who have abused children and the institutions that allowed it to happen.

Allegations of abuse by politicians and civil servants at Westminster will be among the first of the inquiries to take place. Goddard said the claims would be examined as part of “an objective fact-finding inquiry”.

She said: “The investigation will focus on high-profile allegations of child sexual abuse involving current or former members of parliament, senior civil servants, government advisers and members of the intelligence and security agencies. It will consider allegations of cover­-up and conspiracy and will review the adequacy of law enforcement responses to these allegations.”

Other high-profile scandals to be investigated by the inquiry and heard in public include the abuse carried out by the Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith and others at Knowl View school and Cambridge House boys hostel in Rochdale.

There will be a separate investigation into whether establishment figures put pressure on police and prosecutors to cover up the years of sexual abuse by the Church of England’s then bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball.

Ball, who was bishop of Lewes, in the Chichester diocese, before he took up his post in Gloucester, was convicted this year of the sexual abuse of 18 young men between 1977 and 1992. It emerged during his trial that he had escaped justice 22 years ago after what victims say was an establishment cover-up.

Peter Ball

Ball is one of a string of Church of England figures who abused children in the Chichester diocese, and their crimes are only now – years later – being brought to criminal courts. Goddard said: “We will consider the experience of the diocese of Chichester, a diocese that has been beset by allegations of sexual abuse and subject to numerous investigations, reviews and inquiries.

“We will also consider the case of former bishop of Lewes, and subsequent bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, and investigate whether there were inappropriate attempts by people of prominence to interfere in criminal justice processes after he was first accused of child sexual offences.”

The 12 investigations will also examine sexual abuse in children’s homes in Lambeth and Nottinghamshire. “The abuse of children in the care of Lambeth council and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire councils demands thorough and searching examinations of what may have taken place,” Goddard said. “The inquiry intends to hear from victims and survivors of sexual abuse that happened whilst they were in the care of these councils, and to assess the extent to which a wide spectrum of public authorities in those areas failed to protect children.”

Among the other investigations outlined was a separate inquiry into Medomsley juvenile detention centre in County Durham, in connection with which Goddard said she had already received “many hundreds” of allegations of abuse.

“The apparent scale of abuse at Medomsley demands a rigorous inquiry into how such allegations, if true, could have gone uninvestigated and the offending undetected for so long. Our inquiry will pose probing questions of the secure estate for children and young people, the police and the criminal justice system.”

Another investigation will examine abuse in the Roman Catholic church, following a series of scandals involving clergy. It will focus in particular on allegations of child abuse by Benedictine monks in public schools such as Ampleforth college, where several monks and three members of the lay teaching staff allegedly abused children in their care, and the Benedictine monastery at Downside Abbey.

The investigation was set up last year following claims of a high-level cover-up of abuse, and it has been beset by delays because of the resignations of two previous chairwomen. It is expected to cost tens of millions of pounds.

The 12 investigations will be followed by more investigations into specific cases, with the inquiry team investigating up to 25 cases in total. Alongside that work, thousands of victims of child abuse are taking part in a “truth project”, in which they will share their experience of abuse in private hearings, all of which will become evidence to be analysed by the inquiry.

The 12 investigations are:

Children in the care of Lambeth council
Children in the care of Nottinghamshire councils
Cambridge House, Knowl View and Rochdale council
Child sexual abuse in the Anglican church
Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church
The sexual abuse of children in custodial institutions
Child sexual abuse in residential schools
Theinternet and childsexual abuse
Child exploitation by organised networks
The protection of children outside the United Kingdom
Accountability and reparations for victims and survivors
Allegations of child sexual abuse linked to Westminster

The Church of England welcomed its inclusion in the inquiry. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, had publicly called for the church to be among the first institutions to be investigated by the Goddard inquiry.

They might as well. It's not like they were going to be left out.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby

“We’re absolutely clear that the Church of England and other churches need to be involved in this inquiry as we already know there are parts of our history that involve church people having committed abuse,” Butler said in July last year. “So we have to be investigated just like anybody else and there will probably be some unpleasant and difficult stories to handle and I accept that’s part of the reality.”

The Catholic church, which has also seen a string of cases of sexual abuse by clergy dating back decades, also welcomed Goddard’s announcement and said it was establishing a council to ensure full cooperation with the inquiry.

Rowan Miller, director of Somerset & Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support, said: “Any survivor, at any time in their lifetime, who has been failed by an organisation once they have disclosed sexual abuse, or those that have suffered whilst part of or within an institution, will be encouraged to speak out and contribute to the inquiry.

“The need for funding and support for rape and sexual abuse organisations in this country has never been more critical. We know that rape and sexual abuse are the underlying causes for significant numbers of survivors to be struggling with mental health problems, addictions, relationship difficulties among other impacts. That’s why it is important that excellent support is available to survivors.”

Lucy Duckworth, a member of the victims and survivors consultative panel to Goddard’s inquiry, said it was a historic day. “We have been fighting for this for many years, we are absolutely delighted,” she said.

Duckworth, who was abused by Anglican and Catholic priests, said evidence to earlier internal church inquiries had been hidden or withheld. “The [church] culture is to protect themselves, and not put the victims first. Many of the people who come forward have been re-traumatised on top of the original trauma.”

Goddard’s inquiry would be difficult for the churches, she added. “They can’t comprehend what’s coming their way.”

Andi Lavery, of White Flowers Alba – a group of survivors of abuse by Benedictine monks – said of Goddard’s decision: “We welcome her investigation into the English Benedictine congregation, truly hoping it will hold to account those many clergy who criminally harmed children in their charge. We are humbled at the recognition of our distress by her decision to look at both accountability and redress. We will assist Goddard inquiry fully to deliver justice.”

Interesting! The previous story on this blog is about Benedictine monks in the USA. I wonder how proud Benedict is of what his order has become.