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
Abuse survivors sue Catholic order which ran children’s homes
Posted: Fri, 19 Oct 2018 13:44
Ten people are taking legal action against a religious order which ran two orphanages in central Scotland where large numbers of children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
The former residents of Smyllum Park near Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen are taking legal action against the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul over alleged abuse.
The group, also known as the Daughters of Charity, is a Catholic Church-run society for women and a registered charity with an income of over £8m.
In an interim report published last week the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry said children at the homes were beaten with hairbrushes, leather straps and crucifixes. Children at Smyllum were sexually abused by priests, a trainee priest, nuns, members of staff and a volunteer.
The report added that children were humiliated, abused for having Protestant or Jewish heritage and routinely punished excessively or arbitrarily. It also highlighted cases where children had died at Smyllum.
Last year the inquiry said it would investigate claims that at least 400 children from the home were buried in a mass grave nearby.
Lady Smith, the inquiry's chair, described the homes as "places of fear" where the children found "no love, no compassion, no dignity and no comfort". The inquiry had heard evidence from 54 witnesses about their experiences at the homes.
The solicitors firm Thompsons said it was pursuing 10 cases, adding that "many more" are likely to launch court action.
The Daughters of Charity housed 20,000 children in Scotland between 1864 and 1999, 11,601 of whom were housed at Smyllum and 6,585 of whom were at Bellevue.
Smyllum closed in 1981. Bellevue closed in 1961.
Between 1998 and 2002, 121 complaints of alleged historical abuse at Smyllum were made to the order, with 26 complaints about abuse at Bellevue in the same period.
In August 12 people were arrested in relation to historical abuse at Smyllum.
After the publication of the inquiry's report the Daughters of Charity said: "We most sincerely offer our heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered any form of abuse whilst in our care."
The National Secular Society campaigns for victims of child abuse to have access to secular justice throughout the UK and internationally. The NSS also calls for measures to tackle cover-ups of child abuse in religious institutions, including laws mandating the reporting of abuse.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was set up in 2015 to investigate historic child abuse within care establishments in Scotland.
Last month it announced that it would investigate a number of residential care establishments run by male religious orders.
Its upcoming hearings will scrutinise schools run by the Order of Benedictines, the Marist Brothers and the Christian Brothers. The inquiry will later look at the provision of care by the De La Salle Brothers. All of these are Catholic groups.
Read more on Smyllum: The legacy of decades of abuse in a Catholic children's home, by Mark Boules for the NSS
Protests highlight abuse and cover-ups among Jehovah’s Witnesses
Posted: Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:45
Protesters have gathered in London to highlight "serious and persistent" child sexual abuse within global Jehovah's Witnesses communities and JW leaders' failure to report it to the police.
Members of the group JW Protest have protested over the last two weekends at the ExCel centre in London's Docklands. The first gathering, on 11 and 12 August, coincided with a major JW convention and attracted over 100 people from 13 countries.
The protesters strongly criticised a procedure set by the main JW governing body known as the 'two witness rule'. This means elders of a congregation will only act if there are two witnesses to any 'sin' committed.
A committee of the protesters passed a resolution calling on the JW governing body to acknowledge victims' "pain and suffering" and take action to prevent further cover-ups.
The protests also highlighted the problems associated with shunning, the procedure under which people are removed from JW congregations as punishment for perceived transgressions. Several protesters said those who reported child abuse had been shunned.
The protesters said they were mostly "stumbled, faded, former or ex members of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses", along with their loved ones.
Louise Goode, a JW Protest committee member, said the group had "tried to engage the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Society [a group which supports JW's work] in every way possible".
"Even when they have been fined millions of dollars in the USA for concealing child sexual abuse records, and have been ordered to pay massive legal costs in the UK, they stated they will never change their policies. We have been left with no other option but to make our voices heard through our democratic right to peaceful protest."
She added that JW Protest hoped the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) would include the Jehovah's Witnesses in its inquiry. IICSA has recently heard evidence concerning abuse and cover-ups in institutions including the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
Australia's recent royal commission on institutional responses to child sexual abuse recently found there had been over 1,800 victims and 1,006 alleged perpetrators among Jehovah's Witnesses since 1950. JW elders did not report a single instance of abuse to the police. The JW community in Australia has just 68,000 members.
Recent reports have also suggested a serious problem with child abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses in the UK. In March the Guardian reported that more than 100 people had approached it with allegations of abuse and mistreatment.
Some identified cultural barriers to the reporting of physical and psychological abuse and said JW leaders had hidden abuse from the police. Kathleen Hallisey, a senior abuse solicitor who works on behalf of alleged victims, told the paper the two witness rule meant reports of abuse "are usually dismissed".
In 2015 the High Court ordered the JW organisation to pay more than £700,000 in damages and costs to a woman it failed to protect from abuse. Last year the Charity Commission severely criticised Jehovah's Witnesses for allowing a convicted sex offender to interrogate his victims.
And earlier this month Dutch media reported that Jehovah's Witnesses had refused to hand over documents in which an ex-member had admitted abusing a child to the public prosecutor in the Netherlands.
National Secular Society spokesperson Chris Sloggett said the protesters had "shone a light on a shocking series of practices".
"Again and again we see, in various religious traditions and in many parts of the world, religious leaders putting the interests of their institutions ahead of the protection of children and vulnerable people.
"These protests should serve as a reminder of the need for genuine accountability for religious abusers and those who cover up abuse within religious groups. The secular authorities must expose and prosecute religious abusers and leaders who know about abuse and hide it away."
The NSS is calling for a mandatory reporting law, which would mean those who know about child abuse and fail to inform the authorities would be committing a criminal offence.
The practice of shunning from Jehovah's Witnesses congregations is the subject of the recently-released film Apostasy, which has received a series of positive reviews.
Image © SaySorry.org.
