New Zealand’s prime minister delivered a historic apology Tuesday to victims abused in state care, acknowledging the “unimaginable pain” suffered within children’s homes and psychiatric hospitals.
Some 200,000 vulnerable New Zealanders were abused in state care in the seven decades since the 1950s, according to a six-year public inquiry that described its findings as an “unthinkable national catastrophe”.
Youngsters were sexually abused by church carers, mothers were forced to give up children for adoption, and troublesome patients were strapped to beds for seizure-inducing electroconvulsive therapy.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday apologised on behalf of successive governments that turned a blind eye to such harrowing reports.
“I am sorry you were not believed when you came forward to report your abuse,” he said in an address delivered to parliament.
“Some of you may feel my words count for little after so long and so much hurt.
“But I hope that today, with this apology and the acknowledgement of your burden, it becomes a little lighter for some of you.”
Survivors packed a public gallery inside New Zealand’s parliament to watch Luxon deliver the apology, many of them weeping and overcome with emotion.
Others jeered when New Zealand’s solicitor-general, accused of hindering survivors’ legal claims, stood at a press conference to give her own apology.
