The Commissioner’s role is to represent the interests of victims and survivors of non-recent historical institutional childhood abuse in accordance with the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019. The Commissioner works to empower victims and survivors to exercise their rights.
In addition, the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019 provides the Commissioner's Office with a number of statutory powers:
- Powers to undertake or commission research into matters concerning the interests of victims and survivors;
- Powers to compile information concerning the interests of victims and survivors;
- Powers to provide advice or information on matters concerning the interests of victims and survivors;
- Powers to publish anything concerning the interests of victims and survivors
- Powers to make representations or recommendations to any person concerning the interests of victims and survivors.