New Zealand’s Luxon apologises to victims of abuse in state and church care
Al Jazeera
New Zealand Prime Minister says government must take responsibility for ‘horrific’ abuse of some 200,000 people in care.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has issued a landmark apology to survivors of abuse in state and church care.
“It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” Luxon said on Tuesday in remarks to parliament.
“For many of you, it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility.”
The rare apology comes after an independent inquiry in July reported its finding that New Zealand’s state and faith-based institutions had presided over the abuse of some 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults over the span of seven decades.
New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that nearly one in three people in state or religious care between 1950 and 2019 experienced abuse in what amounted to a “national disgrace”.
