A SURVIVOR of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries has spoken of her “disappointment” that a UN torture committee has ruled against her.
Elizabeth Coppin has been a vocal campaigner for justice for the survivors of Ireland’s brutal Magdalene laundries for many years.
Now living in Kent, she was born in St Columbanus’s county home in Killarney, Co. Kerry in 1949 to a teenage single mother.
At the age of two, she was taken from her mother and a judge sent her to an industrial school.
As a teenager, between 1964 and 1968, she was held in three different Magdalene laundries, where she was subjected to arbitrary detention, exhausting forced labour, neglect, unsanitary living conditions, denial of identity, denial of privacy and ritual humiliation.
She was finally released from the third laundry just prior to her 19th birthday, in April 1968.
Ms Coppin took her individual case to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) in 2018, arguing that through her enforced incarceration the Irish State had violated her rights under articles 12, 13, 14 and 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
In her submission, Ms Coppin further argued that the State had failed to undertake a prompt and impartial investigation into her allegations of abuse during her time incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries and had not ensured that she could obtain full redress.
She also argued that they failed to act to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment towards her while in their care.
However, in its final decision, published on October 31, 2022, CAT concluded that the State was not in violation of these articles, stating “the Committee considers that the State party took the necessary measures to conduct an effective, objective and timely investigation into the complainant’s allegations of torture and ill-treatment”.
Elizabeth Coppin pictured at an event for survivors of institutional abuse hosted by Irish President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in 2018Ms Coppin is one of thousands of Magdalene laundry survivors in Ireland who has received compensation under two separate redress schemes .
Her acceptance of those financial sums, and signing of the associate waivers to further redress, led CAT to conclude that the State had already accepted “partial responsibility” for what had happened to her while under their care.
“The Committee notes that the complainant received two awards of compensation and signed two waivers from further claims,” they state in their findings.
“In the circumstances, the Committee considers that the State party undertook necessary examinations of the complainant’s claims by competent authorities, even if not fully conclusive, and that the acceptance of the two awards against the signature of waivers, preceded by establishment of facts, led to a partial admission of responsibility on part of the State party.”
Unusually, the report of the CAT’s findings came with separate statements attached, from dissenting Committee members who did not agree with the decision.
They were from Todd Buchwald, who claimed “the crux of the matter is the State party failed to conduct a “prompt and impartial investigation” of allegations of torture and ill-treatment that it had “reasonable ground to believe” had been committed”.
A joint statement by dissenters Ana Racu and Erdogan Iscan was also attached to the report, which added: “We disagree with the Committee’s conclusion under article 12, that the State party took the “necessary measures” to conduct an objective and timely investigation into the complainant’s claims.
“The record demonstrates that the State party, other than gathering information, has failed to conduct a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into allegations of arbitrary detention, forced labour and ill-treatment to which the complainant has been subjected.
“The Committee’s decision sets a discouraging precedent undermining the obligations under article 12.”
CAT published its decision late last year, but Ms Coppin has not commented on it until today - where she claimed their findings were “disappointing”.
In a statement reported by the Journal, Ms Coppin said she was “deeply disappointed that the Committee found the State did all it could to investigate the violation of my human rights”.
“I have been seeking Justice for the past 25 years, for the cruel, degrading, abusive and torturous treatment I endured when in the care of the Irish State,” she added.
“There has never been a prompt impartial investigation. No one has considered the abuse of my human rights.
“That has been recognised by the Committee on other occasions, as was pointed out by three members of the Committee who disagreed and (unusually) wrote dissenting opinions.”
In a paper published yesterday (February 13), Mairead Enright, Professor of Feminist Legal Studies at Birmingham Law School, branded the CAT findings “depressing”.
“This UNCAT decision is a shocking rebuff to a brave and dignified survivor of serious institutional abuse,” she added.
“It deserves serious critical engagement from all human rights lawyers with an interest in ‘historical’ injustice.”
