The UN Convention Against Torture has announced that it will be reviewing reports by the Holy See to determine if they are in compliance with the international treaty against torture.
Other states being reviewed include Sierra Leone, Cyprus and Lithuania.
While it’s a routine review—and only in the informational stages—victims and advocates hope that the review will publicly expose Vatican crimes.
This latest news comes on the heels of a request of the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child, in which in the international organization asked the Vatican to account for every child sex accusation by clergy it has received and disclose all records of abuse and cover-up by church officials.
While these actions are symbolic and have no “teeth”—in other words, no one is going to go to jail and the Vatican can simply “quit” the UN if it doesn’t want to play along—it’s reassuring to the victims’ community to see that international bodies DO recognize that there is a problem.
Then hopefully, local civil authorities in the sovereign nations where these crimes are occurring will be brave enough to do something about it.
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