Rights group pledges to defend clerical sex abuse victims
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights pledged Thursday to defend victims of clerical sex abuse and work to ensure member countries do better at protecting children and punishing such cases.
Commission Vice President Flávia Piovesan told a hearing on the subject Thursday that “you have our firm and absolute commitment that we are part of this cause.”
The IACHR is getting involved for the first time in a problem of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy that have often been mishandled by countries in the region.
Such cases have been reported in at least 19 countries in Latin America. according to a 2019 report by the Child Rights International Network, Mexico has 550 reported cases, Chile, 243, Colombia 137 and Argentina has 129.
The commission's Rapporteur on the Rights of the Child, Esmeralda Arosemena, said the hemispheric body, part of the Organization of American States, would use its powers to ask for information on cases that are not being resolved by member states.
The commission heard from activists who say there have been instances of harassment and persecution against those seeking justice.
Lawyer Sergio Salinas, who pursued the case of sexual abuses at the Antonio Próvolo school, a Roman Catholic school for deaf children in Argentina, said governments "have had a position of omission, of not controlling the Church even though children were abused in those institutions."
Adalberto Méndez, the legal coordinator for the advocacy group Ending Clergy Abuse, presented a series of cases to the commission to illustrate the way individual governments have helped cover up the crimes, failed to protect victims or help them get justice.
Méndez said “the IACHR recognized the range of rights that have been violated, as a consequence of government covering up clerical sex abuse of children.”
