Resources about the ways in which international human rights law can be used to advance women's rights at the international, regional and national levels.

Those who were sexually abused while in Church custody in Australia can contact:

To enforce order and maintain a monastic atmosphere, the inmates were required to observe strict silence for much of the day. "The Rule of Silence was a major feature of the women's lives and continues well into the second half of the twentieth century." [Finnegan, p. 24] Corporal punishment was common, and passive-aggression was simply ignored:
"A sullen temper, often shown by refusing food, is best dealt with by silence. When a girl wakes up to the fact that no one takes any notice, nor is troubled (apparently at least) by her self-starvation, she gets weary of her self-imposed martyrdom and learns sense." [Arthur J. S. Maddison, Hints on Rescue Work, A Handbook for Missionaries and Superintendants of Homes (1898); cited from Finnegan, p.31]

  
New Group Calls for Justice for Magdalenes  Cavan, 20th July, 2004 [This needs to be updated to include all 65 countries that had laundries, ed]
Former members of the Magdalene Memorial Committee have joined with a group of Magdalene Laundry survivors to form a new group to campaign for justice for women who were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries.

Magdalene Memorial Committee Asks Where is the Apology for Magdalenes?  Dublin, May 14th 2004
The Magdalene Memorial Committee is appalled that the apology issued by the Sisters of Mercy on May 5th, 2004 did not include those who were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries. While it is heartened and truly delighted that those who suffered at the hands of the Sisters of Mercy in orphanages and industrial schools have had their pain acknowledged and have received their apology, the Magdalene Memorial Committee wonders why the Mercy Sisters have neglected to apologise to the women who were in Magdalene Laundries run by the order.

Magdalene Memorial Committee Condemns Development at Good Shepherd Convent Dublin, 26th November 2003
The Magdalene Memorial Committee condemns the outrageous efforts of Developer, Pat Hegarty, who is planning to build an apartment block on the site of the Good Shepherd Convent in Sundayswell, Cork. Most of the women incarcerated in the Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry are buried on this site. Mr. Hegarty has yet to make a comment on what he plans to do about preserving the graves of these women.

Link to Abandoned Ireland, pics of a Magdalene Convent ruin

The Sunday Times August 19, 2007
Best of Times, Worst of Times: John Rogers
The Irish-born writer, 60, only found out who his mother was when he was taken by his foster mother to visit her in a Catholic workhouse, one of Ireland’s infamous Magdalene laundries. She had been told she would never get out.
Here he recalls her ordeal and how she never gave up on seeing her only son again...

Thirty-three years she was mother-general of the Good Shepherd, and at her death 29 April 1868, she left 2067 professed sisters, 384 novices, 309 Touriere sisters, 962 "Magdalens", 6372 "penitents", and 8483 children of various classes. Angers had seen great changes since 1829, when Mother Euphrasia had come with five sisters to found the house. Within thirty-three years one hundred and ten convents had been founded, sixteen provinces established, in France, Belgium, Holland, Rome, Italy, Germany, Austria, England, Scotland, Ireland. Asia, Africa, the United States and Chili. Under her successor, Mother Mary St. Peter Coudenhove, in twenty-four years, eighty-five houses were founded, and thirteen new provinces established, making eleven in Europe, two in Africa, nine in North America, five in South America and one in the Oceania.