AUSTRALIA
Pedestrian TV
November 14, 2013
After years of pressure to investigate child abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is finally underway; thus begins the long process of healing for many victims. The Commissioners have been appointed for three years with their goal being to “expose the response of the institution in which the abuse occurred and identify the lessons which can be learned from that response in an endeavour to ensure that abuse does not happen again in any institution” as told by the Chair of the Commission, the Hon. Justice Peter McClellan, in his opening address.
Two days ago the Victorian Parliament released an inquiry, into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations, entitled ‘Betrayal of Trust’. The inquiry’s key recommendations include:
. MANDATORY reporting of child sex abuse;
. EXCLUDING organisations such as the Catholic Church from any civil action statute of limitations;
. HAVING alternative avenues of justice for individuals who don’t wish to take legal action;
. GREATER monitoring of organisations and enhancement of prevention systems.
The inquiry states that government groups, including the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church, have previously failed to adequately deal with systematic child abuse and that it was “beyond dispute that some trusted organisations made a deliberate choice not to follow processes for reporting and responding to allegations of criminal child abuse”. It went on to say that “There has been been a substantial body of credible evidence presented to the inquiry and ultimately concessions made by senior representatives of religious bodies, including the Catholic Church, that they had taken steps with the direct objective of concealing wrongdoing.”
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