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	Yemen is currently the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world by UN News, WFP, FAO, OCHA, IPC, agencies   Mar. 2019   Yemen: where the worst nightmares have become a reality, by Najat Elhamri. (Islamic Relief Worldwide)   I have been an aid worker for more than 15 years and worked on some of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st Century from Niger to Syria.   I didn't think there were many things left that could shock me but what I saw on the ground in Hodeidah, Sanaa and Aden when I visited this month chilled me to my core.   I saw so many children, with desperate staring eyes, ravaged by acute malnutrition and in some cases, cholera. Some were struggling to stand, never mind walk. I saw many others who had lost their limbs in bombing attacks or following a land mine explosion. Many of these children are traumatised by what they have seen and experienced and for some of them, the loss of their parents and brothers and sisters.   But the stories my team shared with me shocked me even more. For example, a father arrived at one of our distribution points with petrol and his children, threatening to set them on fire because he had no means to feed them. Even dying this way was better than starving to death, he said.   To make matters worse, fears are now rising that we could be on the brink of a fresh cholera epidemic, with the disease believed to have infected well over one million people. In just one week in February there were over 6700 suspected cases and more than 560 people have died of the disease so far this year. I visited a mother and child health facility in Sana'a and from the 120 admitted cases, 17 were confirmed cases of cholera.   The conditions here were so poor that there was no isolation centre to treat cholera cases and sometimes more than five people were sharing two beds between themselves. Those with infectious diseases such as cholera were not being properly isolated, and conditions were almost begging the germs to jump from body to body, ravaging those already frail from malnutrition and other diseases that are not being properly treated due to a chronic lack of medicine and medical supplies. Premature babies were particularly at risk, in incubators with no ventilation and no adequate medical care.   This is upsetting for anybody but as a mother, when you compare what life is like in Yemen, to my life at home, it doesn't just feel like another country, but a dystopian parallel universe where your worst nightmares have become a reality.   Even if they survive this brutal war, I wonder what kind of future they will be able to have. The social consequences of the conflict are also bound to have ramifications for years to come. Early child marriage has always been a problem in Yemen, which even before the war was one of the poorest countries in the region, but this war has sent the country back decades if not longer.   The sheer desperation people experience; with the pressure to feed their families and pay off debts means they are giving their daughters away for marriage younger and younger. The families say they do not want to do this but that early marriage is better than starvation or death.   Everywhere I went, I saw people in desperate circumstances, including health workers who had not been paid for three years.   Islamic Relief is doing what it can to help, providing food to over 2 million people every month and supporting health clinics and hospitals and running feeding centres to help severely malnourished mothers and babies. But it is no mean feat. Aid workers themselves are falling prey to this conflict. Just last week an aid worker was killed by shrapnel wounds following clashes in Hodeidah. And one driver working with the Islamic Relief team was killed by a stray bullet in Hodeidah in January. The security situation also makes it difficult for us to travel around the country. Access for aid agencies must urgently improve.   But what's really needed in Yemen is a lasting peaceful solution. Despite what everyone has been through in this country, I was overwhelmed by their warmth and kindness. And it breaks my heart to think there is no clear end in sight to the conflict that is bringing these people to their knees.   While there were hopes that the initial agreement for a ceasefire in Hodeidah would have held, our staff in Hodeidah are telling us of an increase in heavy fighting and are seriously concerned for the impact this will have on the population. All parties to the conflict must put people first and stop this brutal war, before it is too late.   * Najat Elhamri is Head of Middle East and Eastern Europe region, Islamic Relief Worldwide. http://tmsnrt.rs/2TWPpuF   http://www.euronews.com/2019/02/05/the-ceasefire-in-hodeida-hasn-t-stopped-bullets-and-starvation-claiming-yemeni-lives-view   Mar. 2019   10 million Yemenis one step away from famine. (UN News)   'Today twenty million Yemenis - some 70 per cent of the population - are food insecure, marking a 13 per cent increase from last year', World Food Programme (WFP) Spokesperson Herve Verhoosel told reporters at a regular press briefing in Geneva. 'Nearly 10 million of them are one step away from famine'.   After receiving reports that intensive clashes erupted in several locations within Hudaydah city, including an attack yesterday on a key supply route from Hudaydah to Sana'a, WFP expressed security concerns in ensuring proper humanitarian support by WFP and other UN agencies.   Hudaydah has been the focus of clashes between Government forces and Houthi opposition fighters. It is a crucial gateway for the entry of aid, desperately needed to save millions of Yemenis from starvation.   Last December, UN-brokered consultations between the Government and Houthi leaders resulted in the Stockholm Agreement, which set out terms for ongoing troop-withdrawal negotiations and a ceasefire that continues to hold, albeit fragilely.   Meanwhile since early this month, warring factions in a northern district, have displaced some 11,000 families in Hajjah governorate, an area on Yemen's northern Red Sea coast, which borders Saudi Arabia.   'In northern Hajjah governorate, already one of the most food insecure areas of Yemen, a recent surge in violence risks pushing thousands more to catastrophic levels of hunger', he said.   Moreover, in the last six months, the number of people displaced by violence has increased sharply from 203,000 to around 420,000.   According to Mr. Verhoosel, WFP classes 28 of 31 districts in Hajjah as humanitarian emergencies, eight of which are experiencing pockets of 'catastrophic levels of food insecurity'.   'In the next few days WFP will begin distributing food rations to all families in Kushar district', he said, noting that the epicenter of recent violence in Hajjah governorate was a mountainous district only 31 miles from the Saudi border.   Mr. Verhoosel spelled out: 'We also need access to the districts surrounding Kushar, which have likely received a surge of families fleeing violence'. He noted that neither WFP nor its partners have, so far, been able to access the districts of Harad, Mustaba, Midi and Hayran where an estimated 50,000 people teeter on the brink of starvation.   WFP needs free and unhindered access to the vulnerable populations if we are to prevent the food security situation from further deterioration.   http://bit.ly/2TDdotI http://bit.ly/2EagMXw   Feb. 2019   Yemen: 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview. (OCHA)   The humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains the worst in the world. Nearly four years of conflict and severe economic decline are driving the country to the brink of famine and exacerbating needs in all sectors. An estimated 80 per cent of the population - 24 million people - require some form of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.   Severity of needs is deepening, with the number of people in acute need a staggering 27 per cent higher than last year. Two-thirds of all districts in the country are already pre-famine, and one-third face a convergence of multiple acute vulnerabilities.   The escalation of the conflict since March 2015 has dramatically aggravated the protection crisis in which millions face risks to their safety and basic rights.   KEY HUMANITARIAN ISSUES   1. Basic survival needs   More than 20 million people across the country are food insecure, including nearly 10 million who are suffering from extreme levels of hunger. For the first time, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed pockets of catastrophic hunger in some locations, with 238,000 people affected. An estimated 7.4 million people require services to treat or prevent malnutrition, including 3.2 million people who require treatment for acute malnutrition - 2 million children under 5 and more than one million pregnant and lactating women (PLW).   A total of 17.8 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation, and 19.7 million people lack access to adequate healthcare.   Poor sanitation and waterborne diseases, including cholera, left hundreds of thousands of people ill last year.   In sum, needs have intensified across all sectors. Millions of Yemenis are hungrier, sicker and more vulnerable than a year ago, pushing an ever-greater number of people into reliance on humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian response is increasingly becoming the only lifeline for millions of Yemenis.   2. Protection of Civilians   Yemen is facing a severe protection crisis, and civilians face serious risks to their safety, well-being and basic rights. Tens of thousands of people have been killed or injured since 2015, and among them at least 17,700 civilians as verified by the UN.   An estimated 3.3 million people remain displaced, up from 2.2 million last year. This includes 685,000 people who fled fighting in Al Hudaydah and on the west coast from June onwards. Escalating conflict is causing extensive damage to public and civilian infrastructure. Intensity of conflict is directly related to severity of needs.   Humanitarian needs are most acute in governorates that have been most affected by conflict, including Taizz, Al Hudaydah and Sa'ada governorates. More than 60 per cent of people in these governorates are in acute need of humanitarian assistance.   3. Livelihoods and essential basic services   The Yemeni economy is on the verge of collapse. The economy has contracted by about 50 per cent since conflict escalated in March 2015. Employment and income opportunities have significantly diminished. Exchange rate volatility - including unprecedented depreciation of the Yemeni Rial (YER) between August and October 2018 - further undermined households purchasing power.   Basic services and the institutions that provide them are collapsing, placing enormous pressure on the humanitarian response. The fiscal deficit since the last quarter of 2016 has led to major gaps in the operational budgets of basic services and erratic salary payments severely compromising peoples access to basic services.   Only 51 per cent of health facilities are fully functional. More than a quarter of all children are out of school, and civil servants and pensioners in northern Yemen have not been paid salaries and bursaries for years. Humanitarian partners have been increasingly stretching to fill some of these gaps to ensure continuity of essential services.   http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-2019-humanitarian-needs-overview-enar http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/1000-children-infected-every-day-yemen-cholera-outbreak-spikes http://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2019/why-yemen-is-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-crisis/ http://www.nrc.no/countries/middle-east/yemen/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/resources-details/en/c/1151864/ http://www.msf.org/humanitarian-crisis-yemen-fuelled-main-donor-governments-involvement-war http://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2019/02/06/whatever-happened-ceasefire-deal-yemen   http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/assessing-impact-war-development-yemen http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/conflict-yemen-devastating-toll-pregnant-women-and-new-mums-becomes-clear-malnutrition http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/complicated-delivery-yemeni-mothers-and-children-dying-without-medical-care-enar http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/yemen/en/ http://www.unicef.org/appeals/yemen.html http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/yemen http://unocha.exposure.co/eleven-facts-about-the-yemen-crisis   Mar. 2018 (OCHA, agencies)   Nearly three years of armed conflict has exacerbated the poverty and vulnerabilities that were entrenched in Yemen before 2015 and the country is now facing the worst manmade humanitarian crisis in the world. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate with casualties caused by fighting, food insecurity, displacement, collapsing basic services including health care and education, outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria, and economic decline. A record 22.2 million people, or 75 percent of the population, are now in need of humanitarian assistance - 3.4 million more than last year.   Yemen is one of the most food insecure countries in the world. Vulnerable populations in one out of three districts are facing heightened risk of famine and require integrated response efforts to avert a looming catastrophe. It is estimated that about 17.8 million people in Yemen are food insecure, including 8.4 million people are severely food insecure and at risk of starvation.   As the situation worsens day by day, we renew our call on all parties to cease hostilities and engage in finding a political solution that will end the conflict.   We must act together to save lives and reduce human suffering. The international community and parties to the conflict need to support the immediate scale up of humanitarian assistance, including the provision of much-needed resources and facilitate unimpeded access to all parts of the country.   It is time to act swiftly and in a concerted effort to support Yemen to curtail the possible famine that looms over it and help avert acute malnutrition, which is affecting the development of a whole generation.   * Yemen Humanitarian overview (65pp): http://bit.ly/2IcKvPU http://www.ochayemen.org/hpc/ http://www.unocha.org/story/yemen-conflict-escalates-more-22m-people-are-left-dire-need-assistance-and-protection http://www.unicef.org/yemen/ http://www.rescue.org/report/they-die-bombs-we-die-need-impact-collapsing-public-health-systems-yemen http://www.nrc.no/news/2018/january/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-crisis-in-yemen/ http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/story/three-years-conflict-yemen-human-toll http://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/yemen   Dec. 2017   11 million Yemeni children are today in acute need of humanitarian assistance. (Unicef)   Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa:   Today's briefing has been triggered by our successful delivery yesterday of 1.9 million doses of vaccines to Sana'a airport.   It was our first delivery of humanitarian supplies to Sana'a airport since the 6th of November.   If you allow me, I will give you a little bit of a brief and then I will definitely take time for questions.   Today, it is fair to say that Yemen is one of the worst places on earth to be a child.   More than 11 million Yemeni children are today in acute need of humanitarian assistance. That's almost every single Yemeni boy and girl.   The reason behind this is very straightforward: decades of conflict, decades also of chronic underdevelopment.   Yemen is the country with the most depleted water sources across the globe; Yemen today is also the country with almost the highest level of malnutrition. What has happened in the last two and a half years, throughout Yemen has of course only exacerbated what was already a very sad reality.   Today we estimate that every ten minutes a child in Yemen is dying from preventable diseases. The massive and unprecedented outbreak of acute watery diarrhea and cholera this year is no surprise. As you know, close to one million Yemenis have been affected by acute watery diarrhea and cholera.   It's not a surprise, because of the almost entirely devastated water and sanitation system throughout the country. Not a surprise, because in Yemen the health system is on its knees.   The war in Yemen is sadly a war on children. Thousands of children have died. Thousands of schools and health facilities have been damaged or completely destroyed.   Two million children today in Yemen suffer acute malnutrition. Enough reasons for humanitarian organizations like UNICEF to have stepped up our efforts to assist Yemeni children, to assist the Yemeni people.   I really would not want to miss this opportunity to express our deepest appreciation, admiration even, for all humanitarian workers today in Yemen, particularly our Yemeni colleagues. They have shown unprecedented examples of heroism over the last months.   Access to children however is a daily challenge, today more than ever. We therefore welcome yesterday's reopening of Sana'a airport. It allowed us to send in a first humanitarian convoy, as I said 1.9 million doses of vaccines, vaccines that are urgently needed for a planned campaign to vaccinate 600,000 children across Yemen. Vaccinate them against: diphtheria, meningitis, whooping cough, pneumonia and tuberculosis.   We are grateful for what we could achieve yesterday. However, this is not enough, much, much more is needed.   Let me make three simple pleas:   1. Far more humanitarian supplies are needed today. Yesterday's success cannot be a one-off. Far more supplies are indeed needed. We have, as UNICEF, vessels on their way to Hodeida port. Vessels carrying ready-to-use therapeutic food for assisting malnourished children, chlorine tablets for chlorinating water wells in order to ensure drinking water, medical supplies to support the prevention and also treatment of acute watery diarrhea and cholera.   More vaccines are urgently needed to treat the outbreak of diphtheria; as you may be aware we have an outbreak of diphtheria mainly concentrated in the governorate of Ibb but spreading and spreading rapidly so more vaccines are needed urgently to prevent and treat diphtheria. More vaccines are equally needed for our routine immunization.   Unfortunately, the vaccines stocks, despite the 1.9 million that we delivered yesterday, are running out, vaccine stocks are depleted. So, we urgently need to get more routine vaccines in.   2. We also need access to affordable fuel. As you know access to drinking water in Yemen is achieved mainly, if not exclusively, through pumping water. With the absence of a national power grid we need to pump water using generators and therefore access to affordable fuel is equally in huge need.   This implies that getting the supplies is one part, ensuring that the supplies whatever they are reaching every single vulnerable girl and boy throughout Yemen is another challenge. We need access, we need unimpeded access atany given moment in time to those millions of children in need.   3. And a third request, is another straight forward one: it's the war on children to stop. It's the war to stop. On behalf of every single boy and girl in Yemen, let me conclude by appealing once again to all parties responsible for today's situation in Yemen, to all parties and all those with a heart for children: Please take your responsibility, don't take it tomorrow, take your responsibility now. http://uni.cf/2AfvppO   Nov. 2017   UN leaders, aid agencies appeal for immediate lifting of humanitarian blockade in Yemen. (WFP)   Statement by WFP Executive Director David Beasley, UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake, and WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.   'While the Saudi-led military coalition has partially lifted the recent blockade of Yemen, closure of much of the country's air, sea and land ports is making an already catastrophic situation far worse. The space and access we need to deliver humanitarian assistance is being choked off, threatening the lives of millions of vulnerable children and families.   Together, we issue another urgent appeal for the coalition to permit entry of lifesaving supplies to Yemen in response to what is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The supplies, which include medicines, vaccines and food, are essential to staving off disease and starvation. Without them, untold thousands of innocent victims, among them many children, will die.   More than 20 million people, including over 11 million children, are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. At least 14.8 million are without basic healthcare and an outbreak of cholera has resulted in more than 900,000 suspected cases.   Some 17 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from and 7 million are totally dependent on food assistance. Severe acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of almost 400,000 children. As supplies run low, food prices rise dramatically, putting thousands more at risk.   Even with a partial lifting of the blockade, the World Food Programme estimates that an additional 3.2 million people will be pushed into hunger. If left untreated, 150,000 malnourished children could die within the coming months. To deprive this many from the basic means of survival is an unconscionable act and a violation of humanitarian principles and law.   Fuel, medicine and food - all of which are now blocked from entry - are desperately needed to keep people alive. Without fuel, the vaccine cold chain, water supply systems and waste water treatment plants will stop functioning. And without food and safe water, the threat of famine grows by the day.   We are already seeing the humanitarian consequences of the blockade. Diphtheria is spreading fast with 120 clinically diagnosed cases and 14 deaths - mostly children - in the last weeks. We have vaccines and medicines in transit to Yemen, but they are blocked from entry. At least one million children are now at risk of contracting the disease.   The world's largest cholera outbreak is waning and the number of new cases has declined for the 8th consecutive week from a peak of more than 900,000 suspected cases. If the embargo is not lifted cholera will flare up once again.   All of the country's ports - including those in areas held by the opposition - should be reopened without delay. This is the only way that UN-chartered ships can deliver the vital humanitarian cargo that the population needs to survive. Flights from the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service - into and out of Yemen - should be given immediate clearance to resume. UN staff who are based in Yemen have been unable to move, even if they need urgent medical attention.   The clock is ticking and stocks of medical, food and other humanitarian supplies are already running low. The cost of this blockade is being measured in the number of lives that are lost.   If any of us in our daily lives saw a child whose life was at immediate risk, would we not try to save her? In Yemen we are talking about hundreds of thousands of children, if not more. We have the lifesaving food, medicine and supplies needed to save them, but we must have the access that is currently being denied.   On behalf of all those whose lives are at imminent risk, we reiterate our appeal to allow humanitarian access in Yemen without further delay'.   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/un-leaders-appeal-immediate-lifting-humanitarian-blockade-yemenlives-millions-a http://www.unicef.org/media/media_101496.html http://www.fews.net/east-africa/yemen/alert/november-20-2017 http://www.rescue.org/press-release/yemen-collective-punishment-must-end-now http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/millions-of-yemenis-days-away-from-losing-clean-running-water-oxfam/ http://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/11/22/editor-s-take-yemen-needs-commercial-imports-avoid-famine-lettradein http://www.unocha.org/story/yemen-dire-humanitarian-situation-worsen-amid-continued-blockade   http://www.icrc.org/en/document/yemen-urgent-call-keep-borders-open-health-medical-supplies http://www.unfpa.org/press/statement-unfpa-united-nations-population-fund-situation-yemen http://www.msf.org/en/article/yemen-saudi-coalition-urged-immediately-allow-humanitarian-access-during-blockade http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-11-08/humanitarian-agencies-condemn-closure-yemens-air-sea-and-land http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-11-14/hasten-peace-or-be-complicit-in-yemen-famine http://www.acaps.org/country/yemen/special-reports#container-959 http://www.acaps.org/country/yemen http://reliefweb.int/country/yem http://www.unocha.org/yemen Visit the related web page
	UN experts urge Catholic Church to act against sexual abuse, provide reparations by Justice Peter McClellan Australia   Protecting children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injuries or abuse, by Justice Peter McClellan, who was Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia   I recently visited the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima. It is a confronting but moving experience. It is a memorial to the people the allies believed it necessary to kill to win the war. They were also intent on emphasising to the world that they had the most powerful weapon ever invented.   They chose to detonate the bomb in an urban area rather than destroy a purely military target. The contemporary photographs of those killed and badly injured remind us of the reasons for the creation of the United Nations. Six years of brutal warfare had left their mark.   Apart from the realisation that nuclear weapons would forever change the power relationships between nations, there were other factors that contributed to the desire for an effective international body and a rules based world order. The horror of the Jewish Holocaust resonated through the Western world.   Although history is replete with the slaughter of people, sometimes on a massive scale, the realisation that an industrialised nation with an educated population could develop such a corrupted ideology provoked a determination to ensure it would never happen again. The desire to define and enforce the fundamental rights of individuals emerged as a legacy of the suffering of so many.   To create an effective international body which could both identify and enforce the legitimate rights of nations and individuals, the participation of the allies was essential. In particular, the most powerful nation, the United States of America, would have to accept a leadership role, both because of its financial capacity and its military strength. Notwithstanding the tensions between the allies over the right to nuclear weapons, an appropriate homeland for the Jewish people and the end of colonial ambitions, informed by liberal ideals, a fragile compact was achieved and the United Nations was created. From the UN came UNESCO and with it the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which we celebrate today.   Eleanor Roosevelt spoke in Paris on 9 December 1948, the day before the adoption of the Universal Declaration. She said the document was 'not a treaty' and not 'an international agreement' but a more powerful statement. She said, 'It is a Declaration of basic principles of human rights and freedoms and to serve as a common standard of achievement for all people of all nations'. As Eleanor Roosevelt contemplated, the Declaration was followed by the adoption of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was opened for signature on 16 December 1966.   The UN and the Universal Declaration, and the rights they seek to enshrine and advance, have been subject to increasing challenge. Some in the western world seek to confine their relevance, as if they are the exclusive interest of so-called 'elites' or of those who identify as of the 'left' rather than the 'right' of the political spectrum. To speak in these terms is to ignore the circumstances which demanded the creation of the UN and the commitment of nations to the Universal Declaration.   The subsequent work of the UN in respect of the rights of children has not been the subject of similar criticism. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in November 1989. It came into force on 2 September 1990. Its origins can be found in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (the Geneva Convention) of 1924, which formed the basis for the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959.   Article 19 of the Convention provides for the parties to take 'all appropriate, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injuries or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, mistreatment or exploitations, individual sexual abuse while in the care of parents, legal guardians or any other person who has the care of the child'.   The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was tasked with investigating the sexual abuse of children within Australian institutions. Although many more children are abused in family and other non-institutional contexts, the Commission was created from a concern that sexual abuse in institutions may be both widespread and lacked an appropriate response from the institutions in which it occurred.   The Royal Commission extended over five years. In that time we were contacted by 16, 953 people who were within our terms of reference. We heard from 7, 981 survivors of child abuse in a private session with one of the Commissioners. We received 1, 344 written accounts and referred 2,562 matters to the police.   By the end of the Commission we had heard about 3, 489 institutions where we were told abuse had occurred. 58.1% of survivors said they were abused in an institution managed by a religious body, 32.5% in a Government institution and 10.5% in a non-Government, non-religious institution.   Of those who told us they were abused in a religious Institution, 61.4% said they experienced abuse in a Roman Catholic institution, 14.8% in an Anglican institution and 7.2% in a Salvation Army institution. As a proportion of all survivors, 35.7% of survivors said they suffered abuse in a Roman Catholic institution and 8.6% said they were abused in an Anglican institution.   Almost two in three survivors were male. 15% identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The average age of survivors when first abused was 10.4 years, for male victims it was 10.8 years, and for female victims it was 9.7 years.   It would be a mistake to conclude that we heard from all survivors of institutional sexual abuse. As is apparent from our redress report, it is reasonable to assume that if the Royal Commission had continued beyond 5 years and all survivors had come forward, tens of thousands more would have come to the Commission.   Although the Royal Commission received evidence in public hearings from a number of survivors our Letters Patent directed us to consider the response of institutions. We received evidence from some known offenders but in the main our focus in public hearings was on senior members of both religious and other institutions.   We now know that countless thousands of children have been sexually abused in many institutions in Australia. In many institutions, multiple abusers have sexually abused children. We must accept that institutional abuse has been occurring for generations. For many survivors talking about past events requires them to revisit traumatic experiences which have seriously compromised their lives.   Many spoke of having their innocence stolen, their childhood lost, their education and prospective career taken from them and their personal relationships destroyed. For many, sexual abuse is a trauma they can never escape. It can affect every aspect of their lives.   Across many decades many of society's institutions failed our children. Our child protection institutions and civil justice systems let them down. We cannot avoid the conclusion that the problems faced by many people who had been abused is the responsibility of our entire society. Society's values and mechanisms, which were available to regulate and control aberrant behaviour, failed.   The greatest number of survivors came from Catholic institutions where it is apparent there have been many offenders. The abuse was covered up, and offenders were moved to protect the Church, which inevitably endangered other children. Rather than ensuring that offenders were subject to the criminal law, ineffectual attempts at 'treatment' of offenders were undertaken.   We heard from many leaders of the Catholic Church. When offering an excuse for the Church's failure to act we were told by more than one leader that they perceived the offending to be a 'moral failure' rather than a criminal act. A moral failure could be forgiven in the confessional without any consequence for the offender or the church. A crime cannot.   I cannot comprehend how any person, much less one with qualifications in theology and very often further qualifications from recognised universities, could consider the rape of a child to be a moral failure but not a crime.   This statement by leaders of the Catholic Church marks out the corruption within the Church both within Australia, and it seems from reports, in many other parts of the world. The Royal Commission has made many recommendations for change in the Catholic Church.   It is to be hoped they will be adopted and the Church will be able to fulfil the mission which it defines for itself in Australia. I appreciate that there are many Australian Catholics who fear that the necessary changes may not occur.   Although we engaged with more survivors of the Catholic Church than other institutions, it is readily apparent that the leadership in many other institutions also failed. But it was only Catholic leaders who believed these were mere moral failures rather than recognising sexual offending against minors as a crime.   Although the survivors who came forward to the Commission were predominantly abused by Church people, institutional failures were not confined to the churches. A great many organisations that interacted with young people were found to have failed. Because the failures were so numerous and the impact on individuals so damaging the Australian community came to understand the severity of the problem. The need for an appropriate response for survivors, together with change in the management of institutions responsible for children, is now accepted.   The Commission recommended a National Redress Scheme for survivors. Although my understanding is confined to news reports, I have been disheartened by the lack of a timely engagement with the scheme by many institutions. I hope this is not because of a desire to put the protection of the institution's assets ahead of the needs of survivors, a not uncommon response in the evidence the Commission received. I trust the scheme is now moving forward to effectively respond to survivors needs.   Very often that need is found in adequate funding of ongoing psychological care as much as in a modest money sum. Many survivors struggle with broken lives and require access to professionals beyond the parameters previously funded by Government.   Apart from redress, the Commission made recommendations for change in a broad range of areas. Recommendations included changes to the management of institutions making them child safe, improvements in institutional responses, improving support and therapeutic services and improvement in out of home care, schools and detention centres. We made specific recommendations for various churches. We also provided a list of recommendations with respect to civil litigation and criminal processes.   Although I have not endeavoured to identify the extent to which our recommendations have been taken up, I have the impression that many have been adopted and others are under active consideration. Our recommendations with respect to civil litigation have been implemented in a number of states. Those changes have resulted in favourable decisions for survivors, which many would otherwise have been denied.   The Royal Commission also addressed the process of investigating, prosecuting and sentencing of offenders. We completed the largest investigation of the functioning of juries for sexual assault trials ever undertaken in the world.   Our jury study analysed the transcripts of about 100 jury deliberations in mock trials. I did not expect some of its conclusions. It was apparent that jurors approached their task with care. They distinguished between different counts and the facts relevant to each one.   When one or more counts revealed greater criminality, they were careful not to let the unpleasant circumstances of one count affect their deliberations with respect to others. The juries were obviously cautious in their consideration of the counts which carried the greatest penalty, showing a reluctance to convict and being more likely to acquit on those counts.   The appropriate response to allegations of sexual assault has been and remains a difficult area. That difficulty is exacerbated by the common use of the expression 'historical sexual assault', an expression which to many implies a lesser offence or an allegation less likely to be true. Neither proposition is correct.   As our research indicated, children are most unlikely to report a sexual assault until they are well into their adult years, in many cases more than 20 and often more than 30 years after the offence. That does not mean that some greater degree of scepticism should infect the determination as to whether the complainant is telling the truth.   Confining my remarks to the sexual assault of children, the sexual assault of adults is another complex topic, the community should be mindful of a number of aspects of our research.   When a person suffers a traumatic experience, and any sexual assault is traumatic, especially for young children, memory of the event will be impressed on their brains forever. As with all trauma, some of the detail of the event may be erroneously remembered, some aspects may not be remembered at all, but the essential elements will be.   With the lapse of time some of the circumstances may be forgotten or a false memory developed but this does not mean that the central reported facts are fabricated or that the complainant is lying.   For many years, the prevailing wisdom of judges, and they were all men, was that generally sexual assault victims could only be believed if they immediately complained. It became known as the doctrine of 'hue and cry'. Only in recent decades has the doctrine been rejected by many but certainly not all members of the community.   As I have said, we now understand, although some commentators appear not to acknowledge it, that sexual assault victims and especially children do not immediately, or indeed may not for many years, complain about the assault. The embarrassment may be too great or the apparent or actual power of the offender such that the child finds it impossible to report.   It is to be expected that children who have been abused by an authority figure, especially someone respected by the family, will when questioned deny that they have been assaulted. When, as is often the case, the assault continues the child may be trapped, overwhelmed by the threat of 'going to hell' or other punishment if they tell someone about 'our little secret'.   Sexual assault of children is a dreadful crime. It can have many terrible adverse lifetime consequences. Adults who report sexual assault which occurred when they were a child, especially in an institutional context, have little reason to submit themselves to the process of police investigation and the trauma of the criminal trial unless an assault has occurred.   This is not the reasoning process of the law but it is an inevitable conclusion from the Commission's discussions with the more than 8000 survivors who came to tell us of their childhood experiences.   The countries who first participated in the creation of the United Nations were determined that although nation states would still exist, empires would diminish and a 'rules based world order' would be established.   The rules would provide for relations between nations and trade, commerce and economic stability would be promoted. The powerful and developed nations would share the obligation of providing the resources necessary to ensure that through the UN these objectives could be achieved.   It would seem that at least some of those motivating forces are challenged today. Many nations appear to be retreating from a rules based order. Power vacuums, which will inevitably be filled, are emerging. We must hope that the lessons so tragically learnt in the first half of the twentieth century will not be forgotten and that the ordered world of the United Nations and with it the acceptance of fundamental human rights, including the rights of children, remains.   The Royal Commission was created after years of concerns had been expressed by many who had knowledge of or were victims of sexual abuse in institutions.   The scale of the offending exposed by the Commission and the understanding of the harm to survivors has become the motivating factor for change and reform. It is no longer possible to defend institutional failure or the criminal activities of their members as isolated or confined to a few 'bad apples'. I trust the lessons learnt during the Royal Commission will not be lost and lasting change at an institutional and societal level will be the Royal Commission's legacy.   * At least 60,000 children are reported to have suffered sexual abuse in Australian institutions.   June 2021   UN experts urge Catholic Church to act against sexual abuse, provide reparations. (OHCHR)   UN human rights experts urged the Holy See to take all necessary measures to stop and prevent the recurrence of violence and sexual abuse against children in Catholic institutions, and to ensure those responsible are held to account and reparations are paid to victims.   In a letter to the Holy See in April 2021, the experts expressed “utmost concern about the numerous allegations around the world of sexual abuse and violence committed by members of the Catholic Church against children, and about the measures adopted by the Catholic Church to protect alleged abusers, cover up crimes, obstruct accountability of alleged abusers, and evade reparations due to victims”.   The experts noted the persistent allegations of obstruction and lack of cooperation by the Catholic Church with domestic legal proceedings to prevent accountability of perpetrators and reparations to victims. They also noted the concordats and other agreements negotiated by the Holy See with States that limit the ability of civil authorities to question, compel the production of documents, or prosecute people associated with the Catholic Church.“We urge the authorities of the Holy See to refrain from obstructive practices and to cooperate fully with the civil judicial and law enforcement authorities of the countries concerned, as well as to refrain from signing or using existing agreements to evade accountability for Church members accused of abuse,” they said.   They also raised concerns about continued attempts by members of the Catholic Church to undermine legislative efforts to prosecute child sex offenders in national jurisdictions, as well as lobbying to preserve the statute of limitations which prevents victims who reach adulthood - when they are more able to report the harm they have suffered in court - from reporting these crimes.   “We urge members of the Catholic Church to refrain from implementing practices that reduce victims' access to justice for violations they have suffered,” they added.   The UN experts welcomed recent rules established by the Holy See to abolish papal secrecy in cases of sexual abuse, and to allow for the reporting of such cases and the submission of documents to civil authorities of the jurisdictions involved. However, they noted with regret that the request to report crimes to civil authorities was not yet mandatory and urged them to do so as soon as possible.   The experts noted the first prosecutions before the Vatican Criminal Court for sexual abuse and cover-up at a Vatican seminary. “We urge the relevant authorities to criminally prosecute all alleged cases of child sexual abuse and/or cover-up, thereby sending a clear signal to all members of the Catholic Church that such violations will never again be tolerated,” they said.   “Given that these violations, and their cover-up, have allegedly been committed for decades in a large number of countries around the world, as well as the tens of thousands of alleged victims, we note with great concern the apparent pervasiveness of child sexual abuse cases and the apparent systematic practice of covering up and obstructing the accountability of alleged abusers belonging to the Catholic Church."   In this regard, they recalled the obligation of States, as set forth in international human rights standards, to ensure justice, truth, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition in response to grave human rights violations.   The letter followed a previous communication sent by the Special Rapporteur on sale and sexual exploitation of children in April 2019, and a news release issued by the same mandate in December 2019 urging the Vatican to step up measures to end child abuse.
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