Woman takes Magdalene laundry abuse claim to UN

A woman who was forced to work in Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries has persuaded the UN to investigate her claims of abuse at the hands of Catholic nuns. Elizabeth Coppin, 70, who was in the care of religious orders from birth to age 18, has been seeking justice from the Irish government for more than 20 years. Now, the UN Committee Against Torture has taken up her case. Coppin was born in 1949 to an unmarried mother, and committed to an industrial school by the courts at the age of two. As a teenager, she was passed to several Magdalene laundries across Ireland where she was subjected to emotional and physical abuse. It is estimated that 11,000 women passed through these homes from 1922 until they were closed in the nineties. An Irish government report in 2013 found most of the women were not paid for their work and issued an apology and paid survivors compensation. ‘‘They’re [the Irish government] still denying our human rights were violated,’’ Coppin said. The government has until May to respond to the UN.