GENEVA
TribTown
By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press
First Posted: May 05, 2014
GENEVA — The Vatican is bracing for its second grilling at the United Nations this year over the global priest sex abuse scandal, this time from the standpoint of torture and inhuman treatment.
A U.N. committee begins meeting Monday in Geneva to examine whether the Vatican’s record on child protection violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which it ratified in 2002. The Vatican argues 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.
But a U.N. committee that monitors a key treaty on children’s rights blasted the Holy See in January, accusing it of systematically placing its own interests over those of victims by enabling priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children through its own policies and code of silence. And that committee rejected a similar argument the Vatican made trying to limit its responsibility.
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