Vatican violating UN child rights convention—watchdog head

AFP FILE PHOTO

GENEVA – The Vatican has violated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by failing to stamp out sexual abuse, the head of an international watchdog body said Wednesday.

“The simple answer is yes, they are in breach of the Convention as up to now, because they haven’t done all the things that they should have done,” said Kirsten Sandberg, head of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Sandberg’s comments came after the committee issued a damning report on the Vatican’s implementation of the 1989 UN convention on child rights.

It cited a long record of cover-ups that protected abusers, and questioned the real impact of the zero tolerance approach announced by former pontiff Benedict XVI and his successor Pope Francis.