This article was written by Leo Ratledge, legal coordinator at Child Rights International Network (CRIN). CRIN has received a grant from the Out of the Shadows Index Advocacy Fund****, which supports this article series.

Over the past few decades an increasing number of scandals of child sexual abuse have sent shockwaves through societies around the world.

In many cases, the abuse was systemic in institutions such as residential care, orphanages and schools whether they were run by private or religious organisations or by the State.

All too often, the institutions kept the abuse secret, which only fostered it. Indeed, when such abuse occurs and continues, it is both the product and cause of a vicious cycle of abusive power, secrecy, cover-ups, corruption and injustice, fueled by stigma and taboo.

What often follows revelations of such large scale abuse, is a call to uncover the truth, identify the institutional failings that allowed this abuse to happen and implement measures to prevent it from happening again.

The response

A mechanism that more and more governments have used to respond to such abuse scandals are independent public inquiries.

These are broadly defined as large scale investigations of an issue of public interest, often institutional abuse or corruption, which usually affects many people, is focused on past events that often span decades, and there is enough evidence to suspect that the problem represents the failure of institutions to protect children. Such inquiries have proven to be an effective means of establishing the facts about large scale abuse of children and set out measures to improve child protection in policy and practice and to secure redress for survivors.

For many people who have experienced sexual abuse in their childhood, a public inquiry offers the first chance to speak on the public record

Largely focused in countries that have seen systemic abuse within religious institutions or care institutions more broadly, these inquiries have taken place in countries such as Canada, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, and have triggered fundamental changes in criminal and civil law and child protection mechanisms needed to prevent the systemic abuse of children.

The inquiries are funded by the government yet they function independently of it, as well as of the institutions they investigate. This independence means that inquiries have also depoliticised the reform process, paving the way for an evidence-driven and survivor-centred process outside of everyday political considerations.

There is still a lot of work to be done, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where both the public and government have yet to recognise and deal with a history of sexual abuse of children in institutions. Yet we can learn from the countries that have already taken this step, and one of the most promising ways of doing that is to explore how independent public inquiries have set out a pathway to achieve lasting reform.

Speaking up

Most public inquiries into sexual abuse of children are launched by governments in the wake of a scandal, which leads to a growing awareness among the public of the scale of violence that had previously been hidden from public view.

In most cases, this pressure builds slowly from the gradual formation and growth of advocacy groups set up by abuse survivors themselves, while in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, it is a sudden revelation triggered by high profile investigative journalism. In both situations, the role of survivors themselves is key.

For many people who have experienced sexual abuse in their childhood, a public inquiry offers the first chance to speak on the public record, even if anonymously, about what they experienced and gives them a sense of validation and vindication. Participation in an inquiry, however, should be sensitive to the needs and experiences of survivors to minimise re-traumatisation, which the more recent inquiries cater to.

As part of Germany’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, initatiated in 2016, around 1,690 people have so far given testimony in 900 confidential hearings and 300 written statements, while many thousands more thousands more too part in Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse, which functioned between 2013-2017, through confidential committees, private or public hearings and witness statements.

Many inquiries also have the power to require key figures in institutions, including senior public servants, to give testimony. For this reason, public inquiries are uniquely placed to base their findings on the experience of those directly involved, establishing the truth about abuse, identifying any institutional failure and establishing where accountability lies.

Why public inquiries work

Fundamentally, public inquiries are independent and transparent bodies.

They are formed of independent experts from a range of backgrounds — commonly including retired judges, psychologists, academics and other experts in violence against children — which means they are removed from the everyday political sphere and are driven by evidence and expertise.

Combined with a commitment to transparency, including rigorously documenting and publishing the work of the inquiry, an environment is created where everyone with a stake in the process can trust that it is fair and open. This approach to the reform process can in turn build trust in the outcomes of the inquiry, whether findings of responsibility or recommendations for reform.

Notwithstanding these positive elements, some experiences of public inquiries into child abuse have been critical for a failure to respect survivors’ experiences and needs

The recommendations produced by public inquiries are generally thorough and detailed, setting out a platform for systemic reform. Typically, recommendations emerging from an inquiry’s findings into child abuse focus on two areas: 1) measures needed to relieve the impact of past abuse and 2) measures to ensure the abuse does not happen again. In this way reparation schemes, formal apologies and the provision of counselling and support services can be introduced alongside reforms such as mandatory reporting, pre-employment screening, and education to prevent future abuse.

The Australian Royal Commission, for example, issued a total of 409 recommendations by the end of its work, covering everything from the creation of a survivor-friendly redress scheme to mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and mandatory education programmes in schools.

Notwithstanding these positive elements, some experiences of public inquiries into child abuse have been critical for a failure to respect survivors’ experiences and needs.

One of the earliest inquiries, for example, is Canada’s “Winter” Commission of Enquiry into the Sexual Abuse of Children by Members of the Clergy (1989-90), in which some victims were not permitted to testify, others felt forced to, others were called to testify on repeated occasions which retraumatised them, some were cut off by the judge during hearings, and most shockingly, the inquiry was televised which made survivors feel they were “put on display”.

Other, more general, downsides of a public inquiry are that it can take many years to create the political will to establish one and that inquiry recommendations are non-binding so there is no legal obligation for governments to implement them. That said, the pros of a public inquiry — independent investigation that can lead to the disclosure of widespread and systematic abuse in institutions, creating an official historical narrative of events, final recommendations that identify where reform needs to happen — far outweigh any downsides.

Committing to reform

Justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and the prevention of further abuse are not party political issues and the systemic abuse of children, whether it takes place in religious institutions or anywhere else, requires a comprehensive, evidence-based response. Public inquiries are designed to meet these needs, depoliticising the response to large scale abuse scandals, allowing the collection and deliberation of evidence and culminating in ambitious reform.

The most effective public inquiries into the abuse of children are those that put survivors at their heart, ensuring that the needs of those most directly affected are at the centre. Inquiry recommendations achieve this in particular, as they inform governments about what action they must take. This can include official acknowledgement of harm caused and an apology to victims; legal reform such as abolishing or easing limitation periods on child sex abuse, which constitutes a rebalancing of the justice system in favour of victims; the provision of specialist counselling services; and financial compensation schemes for survivors for the harm they suffered and its enduring impacts.

The formation and support of these groups is therefore a necessary starting point to ensure progress. Undoubtedly, individual public servants can also be a force for good in supporting these survivor groups. However, as that is outside the focus of our research, we will leave it to others to say how that can best be done

Public inquiries are not the culmination of the response to sexual exploitation and abuse of children, but they can be an effective turning point in committing to justice for survivors and setting out the reform to prevent future abuse. — Leo Ratledge

(Picture credit. Death to the stock photo).

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