Un Condemns Vatican Child Abuse Cover up
Aljazeera
UN says the Vatican places reputation of the church and protection of the perpetrators above the interests of children. The UN has rejected the Vatican's argument that it can not implement a children's rights convention beyond its walls, saying the church has "placed the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children's interests." The Vatican was denounced on Wednesday by a UN human rights committee for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children, and that these practices also allowed the abuse to continue once detected. There was not, the committee said, adequate provision to ensure cases like Ireland's Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour could not be repeated. Offenders are moved around to new churches or locations, in order to protect them, while putting more children at risk of abuse, the report said while also condemning the "code of silence" imposed on child victims and the fact that those exposed almost always avoided prosecution. "The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators," the report said. Compulsory reporting of cases to local law enforcement has consistently been rejected by the Church, something the UN body condemned, highlighting cases of priests and nuns being ostracised for speaking out. 'Full compensation' The report recommended that a new commission, set up by Pope Francis, should ask for civil society help and share all its data in public, ending a culture of failing to provide information about private investigations. It also ordered a rehabilitation centre be set up and "full compensation" be paid to the victims and their families. A claim by the Vatican that it can not implement the convention beyond its walls was flatly rejected. The UN said that signing the convention meant a responsibility to see it implemented "everywhere you have a priest or a school or a mission that comes under Catholic supervision." The UN demanded that all clergy known or suspected to be child abusers be removed immediately. The committee also said archives containing details of past abusers should be handed over so that culprits, as well as "those who concealed their crimes", could be held accountable. The Holy See was also criticised for its attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion, with the report finding that its attitudes often increased the risks faced by gay or transgender children UN investigators subjected the Holy See to a daylong interrogation last month on its implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by the Vatican in 1990, the main international treaty ensuring children's rights. It is one of 193 countries that have signed the UN convention, giving the international body the jurisdiction to investigate the Holy See's standards of child protection. The Vatican submitted a report in 1994 outlining how it intended to implement the convention, but a progress report was not seen until 2012 after a series of sexual abuse cases within the church and allegations of a cover-up.
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