Citizens Commission on Human Rights New Zealand

Citizens Commission on Human Rights New Zealand

Founding Commissioner

Thomas Szasz, M.D.

Established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights

Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry

International President

Jan Eastgate

New Zealand

Commissioners

Shelley Rigg, M.BChB, Dip Obs Gyne, Dip Paeds

Media Release 15 May 2015

Helen Smith, M.B.B.S.

More than a thousand cases of ill-treatment and torture ignored by Government

FRNZCGP

Evgeny Orlov

BA, LLB, LLM

Mana Te Whata

Kaiwhakawa

The Government is not fronting up to its international obligations under the Convention Against Torture according to an international human rights watchdog.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) were in Geneva last month speaking to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT). They took Lake Alice child-torture survivor, Paul Zentveld with them. “We have widespread and significant evidence of systemic abuse in State care that the UN Committee has identified as torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (globally “ill-treatment”); yet the government refuse to acknowledge this and fulfil their obligations under the Convention,” Steve Green, Director of CCHR said.

The Government have to report every four years to the UN on their implementation of the Torture Convention; this was their 6th periodic review, held on 20-22 April in Geneva. The session last month was filmed and is available to view via a webcast. The Committee were critical of the lack of actions, especially with no prosecutions of perpetrators; something that clearly acts as a deterrent in the prevention of ill-treatment and torture in State institutions.

“There are quite strong rules in this regard that CCHR highlighted in their submission that amounted to a lack of political will,” Mr Green stated, quoting the UN: A State’s failure to investigate, criminally prosecute, or to allow civil proceedings related to allegations of acts of torture in a prompt manner, may constitute a de facto denial of redress and thus constitute a violation of the State’s obligations under article 14.

The recommendations of the Committee are due out any day now, which look at expanding and reinforcing their last recommendations in 2012. The Government's recent offer of fast-track financial solutions to institutional abuse cases tends to only partially address one aspect of the damage done, something that has gained the wrath of victims, lawyers and advocates alike. “They just don’t get it,” psychiatric survivor Paul Zentveld says. “Where’s the justice after all these years? It’s as if they don’t care, which also makes us victims think we somehow deserved the torture and punishments.” Mr Zentveld also successfully mounted a court case against the government for wrongly removing 30 percent of the payments entitled to the victims of ill-treatment and punishment, something that amounted to almost $3 million when adding it up across the group who had the money taken from them.

“The complete lack of accountability and adoption of the Convention around prosecution is tantamount to protecting the abuser, the perpetrator of the ill-treatment and torture; something we feel must be turned around,” Mr Green said. “It was one of the motivating factors in deciding to go all the way to Geneva and for the first time have the Committee Against Torture meet a victim and an NGO from New Zealand. “We felt it was too important to not go.” CCHR has been battling this for almost 40 years, since they uncovered the child abuses at the Lake Alice Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit in the 1970s. The government payouts of $13 million and official apologies to almost 200 victims, opened the door for victims from other psychiatric, welfare and other State facilities to come forward.

The Commission also pursued police complaints against Dr Leeks and other psychiatric staff implicated in the punishment of children and youth at Lake Alice, however none of these were prosecuted. In their submission, CCHR also cited more recent cases of abuse within psychiatric institutions. One was an event where they alerted the Police after a patient was assaulted by a psychiatric worker, after the institution failed to do so. This lead the Chief Inspector of Crimes of Torture from the Office of the Ombudsman saying this information gave them a new focus to look into the issue of mental health patients having access to the Police and that District Health Boards have policies in place to ensure this.

ENDS

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