Press Vatican on Aust child abuse: UN

AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell
November 29, 2014

The UN wants the Abbott government to take on the Vatican over documents relating to child abuse by Catholic clergy.

In a report handed down in Geneva on Friday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture welcomed the work of the national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

However, the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Cardinal George Pell has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state – the Vatican.

Earlier in November, a delegation from Canberra told the UN the royal commission was independent and it was up to it to pursue the Vatican.

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