Human Rights Court Dismisses Child Abuse Victims: ‘Vatican Has Diplomatic Immunity'
The top court dismissed a case on Tuesday
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the Vatican enjoys sovereign immunity protecting it against child sexual abuse lawsuits in local courts.
The ruling came after a case was put forward by 24 people who claimed to be victims.
The top court dismissed a case on Tuesday which was submitted by two dozen people claiming to be child sexual abuse survivors.
A class-action lawsuit was filed by the alleged survivors in the Ghent Court of First Instance against the Holy See and high-ranking officials in the clergy in 2011.
They demanded €10,000 ($11,600) in compensation for each victim because of the Church’s “policy of silence on the issue of sexual abuse.”
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The lawsuit complained, “of the structurally deficient way in which the Church had dealt with the known problem of sexual abuse within it.”
But the Ghent Court said that it did not have jurisdiction over the Holy See, which later prompted victims to escalate their case to the top European court.
On Tuesday, the ECHR sided with the Belgian court in a 6-1 ruling, concluding it agrees with its findings the Holy See enjoyed “diplomatic immunity” and “was recognized internationally as having the common attributes of a foreign sovereign, with the same rights and obligations as a state.”
Pedophile Priest Absolved of Raping Alter Boy in Trial Heard by Pope's Criminal Court
— Neon Nettle (@NeonNettle) October 6, 2021
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Neon Nettle reported earlier this month that almost 3,200 pedophile priests have been working in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s, according to the president of an independent commission on sexual abuse.
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The report said of these 330,000 victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests along with other clerics.
According to the new report, nuns used crucifixes to rape girls and force boys to have sex with them.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis passed a landmark measure that made those aware of the abuse report it to their superiors.
The commission's brief was to probe allegations of child sex abuse by clerics dating back to the 1950s.
Sauvé said the commission was important to address "this secret and hideous side of our society," and an "enormous amount of work" had gone into building the report over the last 32 months.
Europe 1 radio cited sources claiming the number of potential victims in the report would reach over 100,000, ten times higher than the previous estimate.
