In this issue:
Latest news and reports
- Sexual abuse in the Catholic church
- Minimum ages
- Education
- Violence against children
Upcoming events
Employment
LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Sexual abuse in the Catholic church
All of the Catholic bishops in Chile have signed a letter to the Pope offering to resign over an alleged child sexual abuse cover-up within the church. The move occurred after Pope Francis summoned all 31 active and three retired bishops in Chile to Rome for an emergency summit in connection with the findings of a Vatican report into sexual abuse within the Catholic church in Chile. The Pope accused the bishops of destroying evidence, pressuring investigators to minimise abuse accusations, and showing "grave negligence" in protecting children from abusive priests, saying the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible. The letter marks the first known time that an entire national bishops conference has offered to resign en masse over a scandal. Pope Francis can accept the resignations one by one, reject them or delay a decision.
In Canada, a recently deceased Catholic priest convicted for child sexual abuse revealed in a series of written documents how his superiors and the police failed to prevent the abuse. Paul-Andre Harvey, who died on 3 May, was serving a six-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of 39 girls. Over the last several months, Harvey wrote documents in French, explaining that police questioned him four times about touching young girls, but he was never charged. He also notes that when he was confronted by the bishop, there were no consequences: “He told me to be more careful around children in the future and to pray more”. Harvey was transferred 12 times to different parishes in over 20 years. Eventually in 2012, after 40-years working for the Chicoutimi Diocese in Quebec, police arrested and charged Harvey for abusing three victims. After his case went public, dozens more came forward, with some charges dating back to 1965. Harvey pleaded guilty in June 2015, and the Chicoutimi Diocese is now being sued in a class action lawsuit. The law firm behind the case says the written documents help their case immensely, insisting they show the diocese was aware of the abuse.
A court in Australia will decide if two planned trials for Cardinal George Pell, the country’s highest ranking Catholic official to be charged with historical sexual abuse, will be conducted in secret. Last week, prosecutors in the state of Victoria applied for a “super injunction” to impose a blanket ban on news reporting of the two trials. While legal experts described the application as an extreme move to keep juries in both cases from learning anything that might cause bias, critics say a trial held behind closed doors would also limit accountability for the judge, jury and lawyers in the case. But commentators say the prosecutors’ request appears aimed at avoiding a possible attempt by Pell’s lawyers to argue that publicity would make it impossible for fair trials to occur — especially the second trial which, in theory, could be prejudiced by reporting on the first. Super injunctions have become increasingly common in Victoria courts, and the requested ban could prohibit the publication of all details to do with the case, including location and dates of proceedings and even the judge’s name, across the entire country and on any platform or format accessible within Australia.
Minimum ages
Ireland has set the age at which children can sign up to online services and consent to their data being used without parental permission at 16, drawing criticism from children’s rights advocates who had campaigned for 13. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out rules on the processing of children’s personal data on the internet, including gaming and social media, and requires online services to obtain parental consent where a child interested in signing up is under 16 years old. European governments are allowed to set their own minimum age, sometimes referred to as the ‘age of digital consent’, between 13 and 16 years old. Ireland had signalled that it would opt for 13, but a defeat during a vote in the legislature has seen the minimum age fixed at 16. Several opposition parties worked together to secure the higher age, despite criticism from some of the country’s leading children’s organisations.
France’s legislature has created a new offence for “sexual violation of a minor by penetration”, after two high-profile cases of child sexual abuse, but has failed to adopt a legal age of sexual consent. The cases which prompted calls for reform both involved prosecutors refusing to try men for the rape of 11-year-old girls because there was “no proof of coercion”. Following a national outcry a proposal had been made to set the age of sexual consent at 15, but MPs stopped short of setting such an age and instead introduced a new offence which carries a shorter sentence than rape. The new offence states that intercourse between an adult and a minor of 15 or younger can be classified as rape if there is "abuse of the victim's vulnerability" and if the victim "lacks the necessary discernment to consent”. Opposition MPs and women's rights groups slammed the new offence as ambiguous and disappointing, though it must still pass through the Senate before it becomes law.
Education
A regional African court is to rule on the legality of Sierra Leone’s ban on pregnant girls attending schools, a measure introduced in 2015 after a spike in teenage pregnancies. The law increased the stigma surrounding pregnancies among schoolgirls and set thousands back in their studies, according to women's rights group Equality Now. A spokesperson for the court of the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) confirmed the case had been filed, giving Sierra Leone 30 days to respond. The plaintiffs have asked the court to determine if the refusal of the Sierra Leonean authorities to allow pregnant girls to attend mainstream education violates their legal obligations under several international treaties. An official in the country’s education ministry claimed that the government was likely to defend the ban, adding: "There was an alternative programme for [pregnant girls], and some of them went back to school after a period of time, so I don't know why they have taken this to the ECOWAS court".
A class action lawsuit has been launched in Canada alleging that thousands of indigenous people, including many children, were subjected to inadequate medical care and experimentation while in state care between the 1930s and 1970s. The suit alleges that residential schools – where more than 150,000 aboriginal children were placed to forcibly “assimilate” them into Canadian society – were used as sites for experiments which deprived children of nutrients that researchers suspected were beneficial. Court documents allegedly show that, in at least one instance, researchers withheld dental treatment from children as they were concerned that healthier teeth and gums would skew the results of their experiments. The suit also accuses the government of “discriminatory and inadequate medical care” in a system of segregated healthcare that operated across the country from 1945 until the early 1980s, affecting children and adults alike.
Eight children and two teachers have been killed in a school shooting in the United States, in the 22nd incident of this type so far this year. The shooting took place in Santa Fe, Texas, a state infamous for having some of the most relaxed gun control laws in the world. Texas already allows teachers to carry guns in their classrooms and is considering legislation which would allow Texans to carry firearms without any need for a permit or safety training. A response from President Trump claimed his administration was “determined to do everything in our power to protect our students”, though no concrete actions have been proposed.The incident has also seen survivors of a February school shooting in Florida renew their calls for action to the government, with one former student asking: “Politics aside, how many more have to die before we can change?”
Violence against children
An attack by Afghan government helicopters killed and injured at least 107 boys and men attending a religious ceremony near the northern city of Kunduz last month, according to a UN report. Villagers in Kunduz province said dozens of people, including many children, had been killed in the attack, prompting the UN to launch an investigation. The UN found the government used rockets and heavy machine gun fire, resulting in high numbers of child casualties. At least 36 people, including 30 children, were killed and 51 children were wounded, leading the report to question “the government’s respect of the rules of precaution and proportionality under international humanitarian law”. The Afghan government responded, saying the airstrikes targeted senior Taliban leaders in the area, including members of the Taliban’s leadership council.
At least 26 people, including 11 children, were killed in an attack on a rural community in Burundi, according to the country’s security minister. One survivor said in an interview that the assailants had arrived at night, attacking households and setting houses on fire. Her husband and two children were killed, she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety. The attack came shortly before Burundians were scheduled to vote in a controversial referendum that approved a new constitution which extended the president’s term from five to seven years, allowing the sitting president to rule for another 14 years after his current term expires in 2020. Though it was not immediately clear if the attack was related, the East African country has seen a steep rise in deadly political violence since early 2015, with as many as 1,200 people being killed. Many in Burundi live in fear that there will be another wave of political violence following the referendum result.
UPCOMING EVENTS
THE LAST WORD
"Those victims and witnesses interviewed by UNAMA consistently reported that helicopters approached and fired rockets into the crowd, striking children sitting at the rear of the ceremony first.
"UNAMA received multiple accounts from victims and witnesses that after the first rocket struck the crowd and people ran towards the nearby road and houses, the helicopters continued to launch rockets in the village and fire machineguns, reportedly following the path of individuals fleeing the area."
— Excerpt from UNAMA's report on the Dasht-e-Archi airstrikes.
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