AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)
Melissa Davey
Monday 1 May 2017
Involving children in the research and decisions that will impact their lives is essential to protect them from being abused within institutions such as sporting clubs, churches and schools, a symposium held by the child sexual abuse royal commission has heard.
On Monday researchers released the findings from three research reports ordered by the commission on the topic of child-safe institutions. The reports examined: key elements of child-safe organisations; the safety of young people in residential care; and disability and institutional child sexual abuse.
One of the six royal commissioners, Justice Jennifer Coate, told the symposium that survivors of child sexual abuse often shared their stories in the hope they could help stop the scourge of child sexual abuse into the future. As children, they were often unheard, or heard but ignored and punished.
“A key challenge for the commission has been the lack of research on institutional child sexual abuse to date,” Coate said. “There has been no large-scale, cross-jurisdiction focus on the topic.”
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