UN blames Vatican for covering up perpetrators of child sexual abuse in several countries

The UN Human Rights Council will debate on June 28 and 29 in Geneva on women, people with disabilities, minors and human trafficking, the context perhaps appropriate to fight against sexual abuse on children, the scandal that splashes the Holy See anticipated by a document hitherto secret, in the hands of Pope Francis for two months.

Sexual abuse of minors committed by Catholic clerics has become massive and systematic practices historically quantified in different corners of the planet, denounced by several special rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council before the Vatican from 2019 , without Pope Francis and the religious hierarchy of Rome having done justice to this disturbing past, this document signed in Geneva shows, whose content is now exclusively advanced.

Recently, the independent experts commissioned by the UN for the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition; for the rights of people with disabilities; against the sexual exploitation of minors and child prostitution; and on torture, they received testimonies from several countries, which accuse the Catholic Church “The cover-up of crimes hinders the identification of alleged perpetrators and escapes reparation for the victims.”

The extent of these crimes going back in time encompasses “Several decades” at Australia, United States, Poland, Ireland and the Netherlands, there aggravated by the negligence of the ecclesiastical leadership, “Report them to civil authorities”, dismiss the authors, “Preferring to transfer them to other institutions of the Catholic Church”, who is responsible for both the “sale of children” and “illegal adoptions” in Spain, Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia and Belgium.

The cases of violations of international standards transmitted to the Vatican from Geneva over the past two years are numerous, increasing “the concern about the lack of response from the government” of the Sovereign Pontiff, being the Head of State with observer status to the Council. UN Human Rights: 1,670 cases in Germany, 1,000 in Belgium, 4,000 in France, approximately 38,000 in Canada, 344 in Chile, 33 in Mexico, 12 in Colombia, and an even greater number in Argentina.

Faced with the limited advance of secular justice in various national jurisdictions, and taking into account “certain investigations launched” by the Holy See, the UN notes that the Catholic leaders persist in “protecting the alleged aggressors”, to give them refuge and reject their extraditions, while obstructing “legal proceedings”, denying access to the Vatican archives and maintaining the statute of limitations for civil and criminal cases.

The UN deplores that despite the reforms undertaken by the Vatican since 2019 after the call “for a total fight against the abuse of minors” for the future, accompanied by a new canon law “requiring the appointment” before “prosecutors of the Vatican “, And to notify” to the hierarchical superiors of the allegations “of sexual crimes, and of” attempts of concealment “, the past of the ecclesiastical rapists remains unpunished, by a” code of silence “under penalty of excommunication.

However, the United Nations rapporteurs recognize the value of the abolition of “pontifical secrecy in sexual abuse proceedings, which has allowed, although not compulsory”, that “the Church shares reports, testimonies and documents with the secular authorities of the countries concerned by your request ”, even if this limits cooperation with the judicial authorities. Doubt remains as to whether these new rules “would be applicable retroactively”.

These rapporteurs also mentioned that ten other independent experts of the United Nations Committee against Torture “also observed in 2014 that the concordats and other agreements negotiated” by Rome with “other States, hinder the prosecution of alleged perpetrators of crimes. because they limit the ability of civil authorities to question and demand the surrender of documents to (bring before civil courts) persons associated with the Catholic Church ”.

After the 60-day deadline granted by the UN to maintain the confidentiality of the complaint that has just been summarized, sent to Rome on April 7, 2021, its French version has been made public. In addition, the text lists ten points on which it would be desirable to know additional information, updates, results of recent investigations and new regulations, in the light of “binding legal instruments on human rights. »Ratified by the Holy See.

“The Vatican State has a historic opportunity to deliver justice, squandering it involves not only failing to comply with human rights obligations, but also re-victimizing victims and robbing the right to the truth available to societies, ”concluded Fabian Salvioli, Special Rapporteur. of the United Nations for the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, holder of the mandate which led the exhortation signed by three other independent experts, addressed to Pope Francis from Geneva.

* From Geneva