Post by Administration on Mar 23, 2010 12:51:25 GMT
Vatican to be attacked at UN over failure to tackle Child Abuse
The Pope’s and the embattled Vatican’s record on child abuse will be challenged at the UN on Monday (15 March 2010). Both will be criticised with unprecedented candour at the UN Human Rights Council by an international secular NGO, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
Keith Porteous Wood, who is scheduled to make the intervention in Geneva representing IHEU, said: “Billions of dollars and euros have already been paid out in respect of thousands of victims in the USA and Ireland. News of further abuse has since appeared in Austria, the Netherlands and now Germany – and this is just the tip of the iceberg. How much more evidence of children’s suffering is needed before the UN and the international community fulfil their responsibility to hold the Vatican to account?
“The Vatican is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but has contravened several of its articles, and is over a decade behind in its reporting. It has compounded the abuse by facilitating multiple reoffending by shifting offenders around and shielding them from prosecuting authorities by imposing the “pontifical secret”. Major investigations in the USA and Ireland have been massively obstructed – in Ireland by the Vatican’s own representative, suggesting that this is under instruction from the highest level in the Church. All this has led to abusers being allowed to continue offending and escaping justice, while their victims despair - some even committing suicide.
“The Church’s major concern over child abuse is not for the victims; but to protect its reputation and even more its assets. Over 90% of the compensation payments paid by cash-strapped Ireland came from the tax payers, including the abused themselves[1].
Read more:
www.secularism.org.uk/vatican-to-be-attacked-at-un-ove1.html
The Pope’s and the embattled Vatican’s record on child abuse will be challenged at the UN on Monday (15 March 2010). Both will be criticised with unprecedented candour at the UN Human Rights Council by an international secular NGO, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
Keith Porteous Wood, who is scheduled to make the intervention in Geneva representing IHEU, said: “Billions of dollars and euros have already been paid out in respect of thousands of victims in the USA and Ireland. News of further abuse has since appeared in Austria, the Netherlands and now Germany – and this is just the tip of the iceberg. How much more evidence of children’s suffering is needed before the UN and the international community fulfil their responsibility to hold the Vatican to account?
“The Vatican is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but has contravened several of its articles, and is over a decade behind in its reporting. It has compounded the abuse by facilitating multiple reoffending by shifting offenders around and shielding them from prosecuting authorities by imposing the “pontifical secret”. Major investigations in the USA and Ireland have been massively obstructed – in Ireland by the Vatican’s own representative, suggesting that this is under instruction from the highest level in the Church. All this has led to abusers being allowed to continue offending and escaping justice, while their victims despair - some even committing suicide.
“The Church’s major concern over child abuse is not for the victims; but to protect its reputation and even more its assets. Over 90% of the compensation payments paid by cash-strapped Ireland came from the tax payers, including the abused themselves[1].
Read more:
www.secularism.org.uk/vatican-to-be-attacked-at-un-ove1.html