Galway Bay fm newsroom - A new law focused on providing dignified burials for victims left in mass graves associated with Mother and Baby homes, needs to have meaningful participation in its drafting and operation.
That's according to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission who addressed Oireachtas members on the matter.
The Commission has provided the Oireachtas Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration with 25 specific recommendations on the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials Bill.
The Commission warns that while international experience shows significant difficulties in retrieving, identifying and returning remains to family members, this does not diminish the obligation on the State to make best efforts to do so, and to ensure meaningful engagement with affected people in developing this law.
Other recommendations from the Commission include that a 70 year time limit in the legislation should be removed or reconsidered as this could exclude any sites prior to 1950 from exhumations, and is seriously out of line with the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes period starting from 1922.
It's also stated that the views of survivors and family members must play a central role in any decision to memorialise a manifestly inappropriate burial.
Chief Commissioner Sinéad Gibney says the legislation also presents an opportunity for the state to prove its commitment to justice for survivors.
