Media Advisory
Rights groups call for fundamental changes to Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme as vital hospital records emerge
Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International Ireland join forces with Survivors of Symphysiotomy to strongly criticise the terms and conditions of the Government’s Payment Scheme.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Irish Council for Civil Liberties / Amnesty International Ireland / Survivors of Symphysiotomy press conference taking place at 2.15pm, Tuesday 9 December 2014.
WHAT
On the eve of international human rights day, Ireland’s leading non-governmental human rights organisations, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Amnesty International Ireland join Survivors of Symphysiotomy in a public call for fundamental changes to the Government’s Symphysiotomy Payments Scheme to bring it into line with international human rights standards.
Hospital records have now emerged in a number of HSE regions that have not previously been disclosed. Marie O’Connor will outline the implications of this discovery, which casts doubt on the basis of the Minister’s ‘no fault’ scheme and sheds new light on its ‘hold harmless’ waiver.
WHEN
2.15pm, Tuesday, 9 December 2014, Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2
WHO
– Mr Mark Kelly, Executive Director, Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL)
– Mr Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland
– Ms Marie O’Connor, Chairperson, Survivors of Symphysiotomy
For press attendance, and to request advance interviews with the conference speakers, please contact:
Walter Jayawardene
Communications Manager, Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Mob: +353 87 9981574
E-mail: walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie
Éimear Green
Communications Officer Amnesty International
Tel: 085 8148986; 01 8638300
E-mail: egreen@amnesty.ie
Marie O’Connor
Chairperson, Survivors of Symphysiotomy
Mob: +353 86 81 80 254
E-mail: marie.thereseoconnor@gmail.com
Notes to editors
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International Ireland and Survivors of Symphysiotomy have been strongly critical of the Government’s Symphysiotomy Payments Scheme, particularly its truncated time limits and its waiver, which requires survivors accepting payments to “indemnify and hold harmless” those responsible for their suffering, including doctors, consultants, obstetricians and the Medical Missionaries of Mary, which ran a hospital (Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda), where much of this surgical abuse was perpetrated .
The joint press release on this subject issued by ICCL/Survivors of Symphysiotomy can be found at the following links: http://www.iccl.ie/news/2014/12/02/varadkar%E2%80%99s-symphysiotomy-waiver-%E2%80%9Cshields-perpetrators%E2%80%9D-say-advocates.html and http://symphysiotomyireland.com/category/latest-news/
Amnesty International’s press release can be found at this link: http://amnesty.ie/news/amnesty-calls-repeal-legal-waiver-and-extension-deadline-symphysiotomy-payment-scheme
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