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New Zealand to apologise after inquiry finds 200,000 children and vulnerable adults abused in care

The report by Royal Commission of Inquiry spoke to over 2,300 survivors of abuse in New Zealand, which has a population of 5.3 million. The inquiry detailed a litany of abuses in state and faith-based care, including rape, sterilisation and electric shocks, which peaked in the 1970s.

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New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon expressed regret on Wednesday after a public inquiry found some 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults were abused in state and religious care over the last 70 years.

Nearly one in three children and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 to 2019 experienced some form of abuse, the report found, a finding that could leave the government facing billions of dollars in fresh compensation claims, Reuters reported.

"This is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand's history as a society and as a state, we should have done better, and I am determined that we will do so," Luxon told a news conference.

An official apology will follow on Nov. 12, he added.

Survivors and their supporters filled the public gallery of the country's parliament as the report was debated, while still more watched from a separate room.

After Luxon spoke, likening the abuse against children at one of the state care facilities, Lake Alice, to torture, many stood and sang an Indigenous Maori song about love and unity.

The report by Royal Commission of Inquiry spoke to over 2,300 survivors of abuse in New Zealand, which has a population of 5.3 million. The inquiry detailed a litany of abuses in state and faith-based care, including rape, sterilisation and electric shocks, which peaked in the 1970s.

Those from the Indigenous Maori community were especially vulnerable to abuse, the report found, as well as those with mental or physical disabilities.

Civil and faith leaders fought to cover up abuse by moving abusers to other locations and denying culpability, with many victims dying before seeing justice, the report added.

"It is a national disgrace that hundreds of thousands of children, young people and adults were abused and neglected in the care of the State and faith-based institutions," the report said.

It made 138 recommendations, including calling for public apologies from New Zealand's government, as well as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches respectively, who have previously condemned child abuse.

In a statement the Catholic Church of New Zealand said it was carefully reviewing the report.

"We will ensure that action follows our review of the inquiry’s findings," the statement said, adding it had previously acknowledged the abuse occurred.

A spokesperson for the Anglican Church in New Zealand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PAYOUTS DUE

The report estimated the average lifetime cost to an abuse survivor, that is what New Zealanders would consider normal, day-to-day activities, was estimated in 2020 to be approximately NZ$857,000 ($511,200.50) per person, though the report did not make clear the amount of compensation available for survivors.

Luxon said he believed the total compensation due to survivors could run into billions of dollars.

"We're opening up the redress conversations and we're going through that work with survivor groups," he said.

The inquiry also recommended payments to families who have been cared for by survivors of abuse due to the intergenerational trauma they suffered, as well as review of compensation paid in previous child abuse cases including at the Lake Alice adolescent unit.

"The most important element is to recognise and acknowledge the survivors for the reality and the truth of their lives," said Tracey McIntosh, a sociologist at the University of Auckland.

The report also called for the government to set up a Care Safe Agency responsible for overseeing the industry, as well new legislation including mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, including admissions made during religious confession.

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader

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Judges at the International Criminal Court have issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, Reuters reported on Thursday afternoon.

The move comes after the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20, that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the Oct.7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.

The ICC said Israel's acceptance of the court's jurisdiction was not required.

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

Israel has said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.

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US vetoes UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire

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The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel's war with Hamas.

The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in the 13-month conflict and separately demanded the release of hostages, Reuters reported.

Only the U.S. voted against, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution.

Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.

"A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it," he said.

Wood said the U.S. had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a "dangerous message" to Hamas that "there's no need to come back to the negotiating table."

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once. It was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Members roundly criticized the U.S. for blocking the resolution put forward by the council's 10 elected members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.

"It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security," Malta's U.N. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said after the vote failed, adding that the text of the resolution "was by no means a maximalist one."

"It represented the bare minimum of what is needed to begin to address the desperate situation on the ground," she said.

Food security experts have warned that famine is imminent among Gaza's 2.3 million people.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who leaves office on Jan. 20, has offered Israel strong diplomatic backing and continued to provide arms for the war, while trying unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

After blocking earlier resolutions on Gaza, Washington in March abstained from a vote that allowed a resolution to pass demanding an immediate ceasefire.

A senior U.S. official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Wednesday's vote, said Britain had put forward new language that the U.S. would have supported as a compromise, but that was rejected by the elected members.

Some members were more interested in bringing about a U.S. veto than compromising on the resolution, the official said, accusing U.S. adversaries Russia and China of encouraging those members.

'GREEN LIGHT'

France's ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the resolution rejected by the U.S. "very firmly" required the release of hostages.

"France still has two hostages in Gaza, and we deeply regret that the Security Council was not able to formulate this demand," he said.

China's U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said each time the United States had exercised its veto to protect Israel, the number of people killed in Gaza had steadily risen.

"How many more people have to die before they wake up from their pretend slumber?" he asked.

"Insistence on setting a precondition for ceasefire is tantamount to giving the green light to continue the war and condoning the continued killing."

Israel's U.N. ambassador Danny Danon said ahead of the vote the text was not a resolution for peace but was "a resolution for appeasement" of Hamas.

"History will remember who stood with the hostages and who abandoned them," Danon said.

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US imposes sanctions on senior Hamas officials

“Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account.”

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The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas officials, the U.S. Treasury Department said, further action against the Palestinian militant group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, Reuters reported.

The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the group's representatives abroad, a senior member of the Hamas military wing and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the group and weapons smuggling into Gaza.

"Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza," Treasury's Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.

"Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas's efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account."

Hamas condemned the sanctions in a statement that called on the U.S. administration to "review this criminal policy and stop its blind bias towards the terrorist occupation entity."

Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas's military wing who is now based in Turkey, the Treasury said, accusing him of being involved in multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks, read the report.

Two other officials based in Turkey, a member based in Gaza who has participated in Hamas's engagements with Russia and a leader authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the group and who previously oversaw border crossings at Gaza were also among those targeted, according to the Treasury.

The statement by Hamas said: "The Treasury Department's lists are based on misleading and false statements and foundations aimed at distorting the image of the movement's leaders ... while ignoring the imposition of sanctions on the occupation leaders who commit the most heinous war crimes."

The U.S. on Monday warned Turkey against hosting Hamas leadership, saying Washington does not believe leaders of a terrorist organization should be living comfortably.

Asked about reports that some Hamas leaders had moved to Turkey from Qatar, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not confirm the reports but said he was not in a position to dispute them. He said Washington will make clear to Turkey's government that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas, Reuters reported.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than two million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.

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