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
Mandatory reporting laws needed to protect children, say clerical abuse survivors
Posted: Thu, 20 Jun 2019 10:53
The clerical abuse survivors' group MACSAS has warned that children will remain at risk until mandatory reporting laws are introduced.
The warning came as new figures revealed the number of situations where the Church of England dealt with "concerns and allegations" about abuse rose by 50% between 2015 and 2017.
Church of England figures published on Wednesday reveal that 3,287 safeguarding concerns were raised in 2017. Twelve per cent of these "concerns or allegations" related to clergy.
MACSAS (Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors) expressed its concern that two thirds of the concerns were not reported to statutory authorities, being either dismissed or dealt with internally. Only 72 resulted in disciplinary action, and no information was released about the extent of such action.
Responding to the findings, Phil Johnson, Chair of MACSAS, said: "The best way to protect children and the vulnerable is for mandatory reporting laws to be introduced to compel institutions to report all safeguarding concerns to the statutory authorities."
MACSAS was also critical of the Church's guidance that there is no requirement for "suspicion or knowledge of actual or likely significant harm" to be reported to statutory authorities. It only states that it "should" be reported.
MACSAS observed that "Institutions will continue to ʻdeal with things internally', often protecting their reputation, image and financial interests rather than protecting children and the vulnerable."
NSS welcomes child sexual abuse inquiry into religious organisations
Posted: Fri, 3 May 2019 11:35
The National Secular Society has welcomed a new investigation into child protection in religious organisations and settings which have previously been beyond the remit of an official inquiry.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) this week announced it would review child protection policies, practices and procedures across a range of religious institutions in England and Wales.
The investigation's remit will include non-conformist Christian denominations, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
This investigation is separate from the inquiry's ongoing investigations into the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.
Religious settings such as mosques, synagogues, churches and temples will be within the scope of the inquiry.
Supplementary schools such as Muslim madrassas and Christian Sunday schools and places where children and young people gather in connection with their religious beliefs, including youth groups and camps, will also be investigated.
Since 2012 the NSS has been lobbying for better regulation of out-of-school educational settings, including religious supplementary schools, to improve child safeguarding. However, the government has refused to regulate madrassas and other places of faith tuition despite clear evidence of abuse.
Last year the Department for Education abandoned plans for the compulsory registration of out-of-school education under pressure from faith groups.
More than one in 10 survivors of child sexual abuse (11%) who shared their accounts with the inquiry's Truth Project reported sexual abuse in a religious institution. Of this group, almost a quarter (24%) told the inquiry they were abused in institutions in scope of this new investigation, including those linked to the Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Judaism and Islam.
The NSS has for many years highlighted the alarming extent of sexual abuse in religious settings and the failure of religious organisations' response to child abuse. Over the last ten years it has worked to ensure that victims of institutional child abuse have access to secular justice.
As part of this work the NSS responded to a direct approach by IICSA to explain why sexual abuse of minors was more prevalent in religious settings. The society has also performed groundbreaking work on the issue at the UN.
Earlier this week, NSS president Keith Porteous Wood highlighted concerns over a lack of reporting of abuse in closed communities during an intervention at a seminar run by IICSA. He made a plea for new laws to require people in institutions to report child abuse to the secular authorities.
Commenting on the launch of the new investigation, Mr Porteous Wood said: "Many minority religious groups form closed communities, and it is in such communities that sexual abuse of minors is both more likely to occur and less likely to be externally reported. Perpetrators escape punishment and continue to offend, but even more important is that victims are at great risk and most have little if any opportunity to bring their abuse to an end.
"They desperately need help and we very much hope that the extension of this inquiry will help achieve that."
A recent equivalent inquiry in Australia found significant abuse in numerous religious settings beyond the Catholic and Anglican churches.
An Australian academic advising that inquiry found especially high incidences of abuse by the Salvation Army, followed by the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Exclusive Brethren.
