A historic report into the abuse of children, young people, and adults in New Zealand state and faith-based care institutions between 1950 and 1999 on Wednesday was released to the public, revealing that an estimated 200,000 — or one-third of those in care — were abused, with the report recommending a series of sweeping legislative reforms.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, in the nearly 3,000-page report, called its findings of abuse and neglect “a national disgrace”, noting that Māori (New Zealand’s Indigenous people), Pacific, disabled and queer dependants often experienced more severe mistreatment. In particular, Māori were targeted for their ethnicity and prevented from exercising tino rangatiratanga (ultimate power and authority) over kāinga (home), as guaranteed in Article 2 of te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi.

Both the principles of the Treaty, especially active protection and partnership, and the Treaty itself were found to have been breached by the Crown’s failure to address and adequately redress the harm caused while in care. The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding constitutional document, signed by Māori and the British Crown in 1840.

Among the 138 recommendations contained in the report is an official apology by the Prime Minister and other key leaders, civil and criminal legislative amendments, including to the Crimes Act 1961, Sentencing Act 2002, and Evidence Act 2006, as well as state partnership with Māori to give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Establishing a holistic system to address the harm caused, a recommendation proposed originally in a report released by the commission in 2021, was also restated.

Across its nine volumes, the report details pervasive cases of physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse, as well as severe exploitation and neglect that affected victims, including the application of electric shocks and misuse of solitary confinement. The cost of abuse to New Zealand society has been estimated by the commission to have been as high as NZD 217 billion.

Publication of the report has not come without opposition, however. On Tuesday, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses unsuccessfully sought in the Court of Appeal to restrain a section of the report involving instances of abuse by members of the faith.

In his speech to Parliament, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined lawmakers in acknowledging the weight of the occasion:

The State was supposed to care for you – but instead many of you were subjected to the most horrendous physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse… Māori, Pacific, deaf and disabled people disproportionately bore the brunt of a lot of what occurred. Not only has this had a devastating impact on your life, but also on your families and communities. We like to think that abuse like this doesn’t happen here in New Zealand. But it did and it is a shameful chapter of our history that we must confront.

The government’s recent launch of a pilot military-style academy has raised questions over whether the commission’s findings will be meaningfully embraced, given the report’s case study on abuse at the Whakapakari boot camp and findings that such institutions are “ineffective.”