Religious organisations and communities are frequent targets of abusers.
Religious institutions are often well-placed and strongly motivated to cover up incidents of sexual and physical abuse.
We work to hold these organisations to account and get justice for abuse victims and survivors.
Many religious organisations enjoy a close relationship with the establishment and tend to see themselves as above the law. This can increase the risk of abuse, prevent perpetrators from facing justice, and impede efforts to support and compensate victims and survivors of abuse.
Those intent on abuse are often attracted to religious institutions. Such organisations give access to, and sometimes extreme control over, numerous children and vulnerable adults.
When abuse does occur, religious organisations often act to protect the reputation of the institution above the rights of the victim. They may pressure the victim to stay silent and move the perpetrator to somewhere unaware of their reputation.
Many religious institutions also have influence and connections that enable them to evade justice and scrutiny, often for decades.
All forms of abuse, be they sexual, physical or psychological, can cause serious harm. Victims of abuse in religious settings have suffered physical and mental health problems, including addiction, self-harm and suicide.
Abuse can take place in any religious setting. That's why we work at the national and international level to hold religious organisations to account for safeguarding failings, and to ensure victims and survivors can get justice.
Take action!
1. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
2. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to support our work to end abuse in religion settings
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
NSS urges UN to pressurise Vatican on overdue child rights reports
Posted: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 09:31
The National Secular Society has urged the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to exert pressure on the Vatican to submit long-overdue reports outlining its response to child sexual abuse.
The Vatican has to date failed to submit a series of four combined reports on its compliance with the UN convention on the rights of the child. The reports, which should be sent to the UN committee on the rights of the child (UNCRC), were due by September 2017.
The Holy See's previous report on the same topic was submitted so late that the UNCRC's efforts to review its implementation of the convention were delayed for 14 years.
In an oral statement to the UNHRC in Geneva on Wednesday, NSS president Keith Porteous Wood called on the council and UN member states to hold the Vatican to account.
He said the reports were "urgently needed" because areas of "huge concern" had not been dealt with. These included:
- A lack of evidence that the Vatican has implemented the UN's concluding observations in response to its previous report
- The Holy See's continued defiance of several articles of the convention
- The Holy See's refusal to cooperate with secular authorities over child abuse investigations
- The obstruction or minimisation of settlements to victims.
He also highlighted the "huge scale" of abuse in the Catholic Church and evidence that the problem was continuing.
The concluding observations of the UNCRC's previous report, which were published in 2014, referred to the abuse of "tens of thousands of children" and the impunity of perpetrators.
The UNCRC expressed "grave concern" that the Holy See had not "acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed" or taken "necessary measures" to protect children.
It added that the Vatican had "adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators".
Several formal investigations in countries including the UK, Australia, the USA and Germany have highlighted similar findings.
The NSS also outlined its concerns in more detail in a formal written submission to the council.
Explaining the NSS's position, Mr Porteous Wood said: "The Vatican continues to defy reasonable requests for compliance from secular authorities, with dire results for many children and the administration of secular justice around the world.
"The UN's child rights committee severely criticised the Holy See in 2014 for failing to submit timely reports. Five years on, the next reports are already two years overdue with no sign of any change of heart.
"The victims deserve for the Holy See to act in accordance with the convention it signed. In their name we are calling for the Vatican to present its overdue reports which the UN can then examine. No state can be allowed to jeopardise child protection so brazenly without consequences."
States that ratify the UN convention on the rights of the child, as the Vatican has, are subject to five-yearly examinations by the UNCRC. They are expected to submit reports to the committee as part of this process.
Domestic abuse campaigners given formal role at IICSA inquiry
Posted: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:28
Campaigners against domestic abuse within minority religious communities will be give formal roles in hearings into abuse in religious settings at a major child abuse inquiry.
National Secular Society council member Yasmin Rehman is among those who have been named as core participants at upcoming hearings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
She will be present as a representative of JUNO Women's Aid, which represents women and girls subject to sexual violence.
The group Southall Black Sisters and Sadia Hameed, the director of Gloucestershire Sisters, will also be among the core participants.
An application to grant core participant status to Lloyd Evans, a campaigner for the rights of former Jehovah's Witnesses, has been rejected. Richard Scorer, a lawyer who represents abuse victims for Slater & Gordon and a vice-president of the NSS, is helping him to appeal against the rejection.
IICSA announced a new investigation into child protection in religious organisations and settings which were previously beyond its remit in May. The investigation's remit will include non-conformist Christian denominations, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Core participant status allows individuals, organisations and institutions special rights and a formal role in the inquiry process. Core participants can make legal submissions and suggest questions, and they receive advance notice of relevant reports.
Responding to the latest developments, Mr Scorer said: "In looking at how to protect children in religious settings, it is essential that the inquiry examines the toxic influence of religious fundamentalism and the misogynistic and patriarchal attitudes prevalent in some religious institutions. Without a proper understanding of this reality, the inquiry will lose sight of the barriers to disclosure which prevent victims from coming forward, and the right solutions will then not be identified.
"Also, in putting in place mechanisms to protect children, it is essential that the inquiry gives short shrift to specious claims about religious freedom. Religious freedom is not an absolute right, and the protection of children must always take precedence."
The NSS works to ensure that victims of child abuse in religious settings have access to secular justice and to ensure religion does not undermine reasonable efforts to protect children.
The NSS has previously responded to a direct approach by IICSA to explain why sexual abuse of minors was more prevalent in religious settings.
