GENEVA
Sun Herald
BY JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
May 5, 2014
GENEVA — In its second grilling at the United Nations this year, the Vatican on Monday sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal by undercutting arguments it has violated an international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment.
The Vatican delegation’s appearance in Geneva is the first time that the committee that oversees the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which the Vatican ratified in 2002, has hauled the Holy See before its members.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, lost no time asserting that its responsibility for enforcing the U.N. treaty against torture only applies within the confines of the tiny Vatican City, which has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants in an area less than half a square-kilometer in size, making it the smallest country in the world.
“The Holy See intends to focus exclusively on Vatican City state,” he told the committee. “State authorities are obligated to protect and when necessary to prosecute persons under their jurisdiction.”
Committee member Felice Gaer’s first question was to ask why the Vatican’s first report to the committee — the subject of the hearing this week — came nine years late. Gaer, an American human rights expert, then took aim at the church’s “alleged distinction” in its treaty responsibilities between Vatican City and the Holy See.
The differentiation, she said, “would create important gaps in the coverage” of the treaty and is a “troubling” bit of legalese.
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