5. Norwegian Female Pedophile Predators go Free and stay in job at Oslo orphanages

Norway Television TV2 - By Eirik Haukenes - 04.12.2007

RECEIVED COMPENSATION: The orphanage child received compensation, but the perpetrator stays in her job. ( TV 2 )

He received NOK 725,000 (EUR 100,000) in compensation after sexual abuse in the orphanage, but the female perpatrator is still working at the orphanage.

For 26 years the former orphanage child kept a horrible secret.

- I was sexually abused from an age of 13 to 15 in a private orphanage that Oslo Municipality was paying for. It happened every night shift, tells the former orphanage child.

Recently he applied for compensation with the Oslo Municipality Compensation Fund for Former Orphanage Children. The board found his detailed statement on sexual abuse credible and proven, and he received NOK 725,000 in compensation from Oslo Municipality.

Sylvi Listhaug, the Oslo City Council Executive Member for Welfare and Social Services from FrP (The Norwegian Right Wing Party) is defending the system of payments in exchange for silence over female pedophile predators operating in Oslo orphanages.

Still at work

But in the same judgement they decided not to press charges against the female pedophile perpetrator who was identified by name.

- She still works at the orphanage making her childvictims. It is horrible that she can abuse other children, he said.

So far 275 Norwegians have been formally found credible and admissable in their reportings of abuse. But nothing is being done to check if the perpetrators identified by name are still working in the system.

- It is not in our task definition and discretion to investigate these matters further, said Berit Rannestad, general secretary of the Oslo Municipality Compensation Fund for Former Orphanage Children to TV 2 News.

Conspiracy of Silence

So although in Norway it is a criminal act by law not to report sexual abuse against children the board keeps the names a secret, and an order of silence is put in place to prohibit them to distribute the names to the proper authorities. This might effect todays orphanage children.

Office of the Oslo Municipality Compensation Fund for Former Orphanage Children who were abused (Vederlagsutvalget - Oslo kommune) in Norway: Visiting adress: Øvre Slottsgate 2 b, Oslo Centre, Norway. Postal adress: City Hall, 0037 Oslo, Norway

- Given that the identified perpetrators in fact have committed sexual abuse against children, then the order of silence that is put in place by Oslo Municipality is seriously obstructing the protection of other children in other institutions against these severe abuses, said Dr. jur Elisabeth Gording Stang from the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights.

That is definately not in accordance with the Children’s Rights Convention, which states that abuse shall be adressed and stopped by any and all means immediately.

Defending the system – Payments in exchange for silence

Sylvi Listhaug, the Oslo City Council Executive Member for Welfare and Social Services from FrP (The Norwegian Right Wing Party) is defending the system:

- The Compensation Fund Board is not supposed to have any opinion on the question of guilt. One of the requirements when people are addressing the Compensation Fund is that the information is protected by order of silence, she said to TV 2 News.

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FIKK ERSTATNING: Det tidligere barnehjemsbarnet fikk erstatning, men overgriperen fortsetter i jobben. ( TV 2 )

Sjekker ikke gamle overgripere

Han fikk 725.000 kroner i erstatning etter å ha blitt seksuelt misbrukt på barnehjem, men kvinnen som forgrep seg jobber fortsatt på barnehjemmet.

Av Eirik Haukenes

I 26 år holdt det tidligere barnehjemsbarnet på en hemmelighet.

- Jeg ble seksuelt misbrukt fra 13-årsalderen til jeg var 15 på et privat barnehjem som Oslo kommune betalte. Det skjedde på hver nattevakt, forteller det tidligere barnehjemsbarnet.

Nylig tok han kontakt med Oslo kommunes vederlagsordning for tidligere barnehjemsbarn. Utvalget festet lit til hans detaljerte forklaring om de seksuelle overgrepene, og han fikk utbetalt 725.000 kroner.

Jobber fortsatt
Men, den navngitte overgriperen gjorde ikke utvalget noe med.

- Hun jobber fortsatt på barnehjemmet. Det er fælt at hun kan misbruke andre unger, sier han.

Så langt har 275 personer blitt trodd når de har fortalt om overgrep. Men ingenting blir gjort for å sjekke om de navngitte overgriperne fortsatt er i systemet.

- Det ligger utenfor det som er meningen med kartleggingen, sier Berit Rannestad, sekretariatsleder i Vederlagsutvalget i Oslo kommune til TV 2 Nyhetene.

Taushetsplikt
Dermed gjør ikke utvalget noe med navnene, og taushetsplikten forhindrer dem i å gi navnene videre. Det kan gå utover dagens barnehjemsbarn.

- Forutsatt at de navngitte personene som er oppgitt som overgripere faktisk har begått seksuelle overgrep mot barn, så forhindrer den taushetsplikten en mulig beskyttelse av andre barn i institusjoner, sier Dr. juris Elisabeth Gording Stang ved Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter.

Det er et klart brudd på barnekonvensjonen, som sier at man uansett skal forhindre overgrep.

Forsvarer ordningen
Byråd for velferd og sosiale tjenester i Oslo Sylvi Listhaug (Frp) forsvarer ordningen.

- Vederlagsutvalget skal ikke ta stilling til skyldspørsmålet. En av forutsetningene for at folk går til utvalget er at opplysningene er taushetsbelagte, sier hun til TV 2 Nyhetene.

- Det utvalget skal gjøre er å oppfordre de som har navngitte personer om å melde fra til kommunen, slik at vi kan ta affære. Vi ønsker altså ikke at overgripere skal jobbe i Oslo kommune, legger Listhaug til.

04.12.07 21:05, ny 04.12.07 21:49

4. Stolen Children : Kidnappings by the State : The Case of Canada's Residential Schools

The present large scale child abuse by alienation and exclusion of millions of children from their fathers and their half of the children's extended families, while isolating these children in female oneparent ghetto's, as presently perpetrated by all Christian Western "democracies" with their structural cliëntelism in its backrooms of power is - allthough unprecedented in its present criminal scale and extend - at the same time nothing new in the history of these states who have so little respect for the rights of its children and its minorities.

Collective state abuse against children and families by means of parental alienation and exclusion has allways been perpetrated and legitimised "in the best interest of the children" and constitutes a structural part of the history of Christian Western "democracies".

The Case of Canada's Residential Schools: Canada as a collective child abuser by parental alienation

Call them and they were never gone
First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada; 21 juni 2005

Residential Schools

"Our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has been absorbed into the body politic."
Duncan Campbell Scott

Europeans thought they could raise our children better than we could - No time to Say Goodbye. Here are the results.

"They encircled reserves to stop runaways and then moved door to door taking school age children over the protest of parents and children themselves. Children were locked up in police stations or cattle pens until the round up was complete."
Bennett and Blackstock, 2002

“What if they squeeze all the Indian out of us? What will be left? What do they want, Howard? We’re Indians. That’s it. That’s what we are”

The last residential school closed in 1996

Canadian Child Welfare Approaches
Fifty years ago mainstream child welfare approaches have been applied to assess and respond to child maltreatment in Aboriginal families in much the same way. But was this the best model to respond to a community in crisis as a result of residential schools and colonization?

There are between 22,500 and 28,000 First Nations children in the care of the Canadian child welfare system…three times the number that attended residential schools in the 1940’s.
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, 2002; Child Welfare League of Canada, 2003; Blackstock, 2002

First Nations CIC Increase by Region 95-01

• BC 90.4%
• Alberta 52.7%
• Sask. 160.3
• Man. 11.4%
• Ontario 163.8%
• Quebec 93.8%
• Yukon 5.0%
• Atlantic 130%

Data represents on reserve children only

Census data showed that the population of Status Indian children decreased 1% during this same time period
Statistics Canada, 2001

So why is it that governments require First Nations to follow their child welfare policies – even though there is little evidence they benefit Aboriginal children? Maybe it is because we were not aware that Aboriginal children come to the attention of child welfare for different reasons than non Aboriginal children. Aboriginal children are less likely to be reported for physical and sexual abuse than non Aboriginal children: Neglect (poverty, substance misuse, and poor housing) are the key reasons why Aboriginal come into child welfare care.
Trocme, KnokeBlackstock, 2005

We did not know that Aboriginal children are removed at twice the rate of their non Aboriginal peers despite there being no significant difference in child functioning. We may have not understood that the real risk factors to Aboriginal children are often outside of the control of Aboriginal parents - poverty, poor housing and substance misuse. We assumed that First Nations parents had the same access to supports as non Aboriginal parents

20 years ago First Nations began establishing their own FNCFSA to deliver child welfare on reserve and stem the tide of children leaving their communities - they are required to follow provincial statutes and regulations that have substantively failed Aboriginal children.

The Way Forward:

• Respecting that Indigenous peoples are in the best position to care for Indigenous children (Cornell and Kalt, 2002; Chandler and Lalonde, 2003)
• Equal access to resources (MacDonald and Ladd, 2000; Nadjiwanand Blackstock, 2003)
• Focused and broad based social activism to address structural risk to communities

It begins with understanding that Reconciliation is before us not behind us

Native Canadians to Get 1.6 Billion in damages for Residential School Abuse
Howard Williams; Inter Press Service (IPS); 24 November 2005

OTTAWA, Nov 23 (IPS) - The Canadian government announced Wednesday an "agreement in principle" to pay 1.7 billion dollars to tens of thousands of Canada's indigenous peoples who were physically and sexually abused in government-financed, largely church-run "residential schools".
The residential schools were the government's idea at the time as the best way to "assimilate" native Canadians into the largely European lifestyle and culture of modern Canada. But the scheme turned out to be a disaster, with many credible reports of native children -- Indians and Inuit -- being sexually and physically abused by teachers and staff. Children were even punished with severe beatings when caught speaking in their native languages, even when it was in conversation with their own siblings. Hundreds of stories have emerged of native families being tricked into giving up their children and even cases of children being forcibly kidnapped by government or church agents.

The settlement was announced at a hastily arranged press conference led by Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan and Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which represents communities on government-recognised reserves from which the children were taken to be assimilated.

It was a particularly emotional moment for Fontaine, 60, who has revealed that he was a victim of both sexual and physical abuse at a residential school. Fontaine told reporters: "While no amount of money will ever heal the emotional scars, this settlement package will contribute to the journey on the path to healing -- not only for residential school survivors but for their children and grandchildren. It's a wonderful day." He said the settlement was the "largest and most comprehensive" of its kind in Canadian history.

Nevertheless, the agreement is still subject to approval by federal courts, which are currently studying hundreds of individual and some class-action cases against the federal government and the churches involved in running the now-discredited residential schools.

Wednesday's package, if confirmed by the courts, will provide payments to some 86,000 former students of the schools. McLellan said that each former residential school student will be entitled to 8,500 dollars plus 2,560 dollars for each year spent in the residential school system. Individuals will receive up to 25,000 dollars each, depending on how long they were in the system. Payments to older victims of the abuse will be streamlined with an immediate downpayment of 6,800 dollars to each ex-student 65 years or older. Fontaine said this was an important element of the package because the average age of the victims was now 60.

The agreement also calls for further action on what McLellan called "a truth and reconciliation" process. "Bringing closure to this chapter of our history lies at the very heart of reconciliation," she said. "I am pleased to announce that we have made good on our shared resolve to deliver what I firmly believe will be a fair and lasting resolution of the Indian school legacy."

But the agreement does not include one demand made by the native groups -- that the federal government actually apologise for the abuse. Asked why not, McLellan said it was still on the table. She hinted it might come as soon as this week when Prime Minister Paul Martin and the premiers of Canada's 10 provinces and three northern territories meet in Kelowna, British Columbia, with native leaders -- including Fontaine. "Quite clearly," said McLellan, "the national chief (Fontaine) and the prime minister may wish to discuss other issues in relation to certain aspects of the residential school experience."

Fontaine said the package covers "decades in time, innumerable events and countless injuries to First Nations individuals and communities".

Among others at the joint press conference was federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a noted former civil rights lawyer and advocate before he entered politics. Cotler said the decision to house young Canadians in residential schools was "the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history". The schools were launched under British authority, before Canada became an independent nation in 1867, but Ottawa continued to finance the schools until as recently as the 1970s. They are now all closed.

The 106-million-dollar "truth and reconciliation" process will provide funding for five years for the Aboriginal Healing foundation and "truth and reconciliation" gatherings. But victims accepting compensation will waive their rights to sue either the federal government or the churches that ran the schools. The money announced at Wednesday's press conference will be additional to a further series of grants expected to be announced at this week's meeting in Kelowna between Canadian and native leaders.

According to unconfirmed reports in Ottawa, federal and provincial leaders are expected to agree to a 10-year programme, costing more than 3.4 billion dollars, to improve health, education and sanitation on Indian reserves and some "improvement programmes" for natives who have moved away from recognised reserves or lost their right to live on those reserves.

3. Linking gender, domestic violence and child abuse

Absolutely spot on, but wrong

Robert Whiston; Letter to the editor in reaction to the contribution “Children's rights” in the UK Teeside Evening Gazette of July 29th, 2004 by Claire Jane Paczko, legal adviser to My Sister's Place, a Women's Advice Centre in the North-east UK; August 03, 2004

Claire Paczko's article (July 29th, 2004) is absolutely spot on when she says there are strong links between domestic violence and child abuse. The only problem is that she is not telling the whole truth, and I suspect both she and your newspaper do not really want to know that fuller truth.

The fuller truth is that statistics show that women (predominantly mothers) are far more likely to assault and abuse their children than fathers. Not only that, they are more likely to murder children. Official statistics for the year 2001 for Northern Ireland indicate for example that there were 247 deaths of children and young people aged up to 19 in Northern Ireland. A total of 134 of these deaths - two key points coming up now - involved children aged less than one year. Neonatal deaths (children aged less than 28 days) accounted for 73% (98) of the 134. A further 51 of these deaths involved children aged 1-14 years.

This is not something unique to British mothers but is manifest in all countries that keep official statistics. The USA is a lot more open and far less squeamish than the UK authorities in detailing the gender of the murderers. It may come as a surprise to many that despite the hue and cry of last year surrounding Prof. Roy Meadow, research shows that the number of alleged "cot deaths" has fallen from 2,000 per year to a little over 200 pa. It is therefore not a matter of courts frequently failing to recognise the danger but of journalists who are 'prepped' by special interest groups who are brazen enough to not simply skew but actually manufacture numbers to suit their cause.

I have been on several Whitehall committees over the years looking into the topic of child abuse and I have to say that Women's Aid, who usually come up with this sort of fictitious evidence, have never once presented evidence that was credible. Indeed, the figures they produced about 12 months ago regarding fathers who murder their children on contact visits, which was widely reported in the press at the time was found by the Lord Chancellors Department (LCD) to be false. The LCD found not 45 deaths in one year but 3 in the last 14 years. Civil servants at the ministry then advised them of the true figures (and in my presence), yet you can still find the erroneous ones on their website.

The trade Union NAPO came out with similar misleading figures and, I like to think, at my urging the Minister at the time, Rosie Winterton, called their General Secretary, Harry Fletcher, into her office and disabused him.

The figures quoted in the article relating to a 1999 survey sounds very much like those to be found in Hansard. Unfortunately, for the article's author, she does not quote from the far more substantial survey of 2001 which had a sample not of 130 but 2,689. This latter sample conveys a far different, almost opposite, picture (Child Maltreatment in the UK, A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, 2001).

The ability of some well-meaning advocates has to be questioned when they dabble in arithmetic and fail to differentiate that the 90% refers not to the whole population or a large sample, but 90% of a small sample, ie a tiny minority. The same deliberately created confusion is to be seen in figures relating to the incidence between pregnancy and domestic violence. Take another example, the stated abduction rate of 26%. Does any reasonable person know of 4 children in their locality where one has been abducted ?

Fogging up the public's perception of these issues is compounded by always referring to proportions, e.g. 26% of a sample and not actual numbers, e.g. 52, out of, say, a total population which might number 1,300. Proponents of reform will have to do better then try to hoodwink the public if they are serious about society accepting any of their reforms. I predict you will find this letter to large to publish and so I challenge you to give me the right to reply in your columns and permit the public be correctly informed.

Robert Whiston. FRSA