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 welcomes mandatory reporting of clerical abuse recommendation
Posted: Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:29
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has recommended mandatory reporting of abuse without exemptions for religion.
In its concluding report published today, IICSA recommended child sexual abuse must be reported and should "not be subject" to religious exceptions. It added abuse must be reported even if it is revealed during "sacramental confession", despite objections from religious groups.
The report concluded "neither the freedom of religion or belief nor the rights of parents with regard to the education of their children can ever justify the ill-treatment of children or prevent governmental authorities from taking measures necessary to protect children from harm."
More than one in ten survivors of child sexual abuse who shared their accounts with the inquiry's Truth Project reported sexual abuse in a religious institution. Despite this, there is currently no legal obligation for religious institutions to report child sexual abuse to secular authorities such as the police. Legal counsel for IICSA has observed that religious settings are less well-regulated than donkey sanctuaries.
The National Secular Society has repeatedly called for mandatory reporting of abuse, independent oversight of church safeguarding, abolition of statutes of limitations, and financial redress for survivors.
The report also included harrowing victim testimony of abuse in religious institutions. One child was discouraged by her Jehovah's Witness social worker from reporting sexual abuse perpetrated against her by her family. The social worker said, "you know how Jehovah feels about liars".
Another was told he was "tarnishing the reputation of the Muslim religion" and described feeling "let down" by Muslim authority figures "who have authority to deal with this" but prevented him from speaking out about being sexually abused as a child.
"[E]xcessive corporal punishment" in Roman Catholic schools was often used as a "means … of obtaining sexual gratification".
The report was also highly critical of religious groups' handling of abuse. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England "demonstrated a persistent reluctance to report complaints of child sexual abuse to external agencies", it said.
The inquiry found the former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, showed a greater "degree of compassion" to a bishop who committed abuse than his victims. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the now leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, made "no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility".
IICSA, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay OBE, is a statutory inquiry established in 2015. The inquiry's original remit to investigate institutional child abuse included only the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches as religious settings. This was widened in 2019 to include all major UK religions as well as religious supplementary schools such as madrasas, yeshivot and Sunday schools.
The NSS's response to IICSA forms part of its broader campaign to hold religious institutions to account for clerical abuse. Earlier this year, an NSS recommendation to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child resulted in Chile being ordered to investigate all cases of child abuse in its Catholic Church. The NSS has also urged the UN Human Rights Council to exert pressure on the Vatican to submit long overdue reports on its response to child sexual abuse.
NSS: Mandatory reporting without religious exceptions "necessary and welcome"
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said: "This inquiry's examination of religious organisations and settings has revealed a catalogue of safeguarding failures and a shameful history of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover ups.
"The recommendation for mandatory reporting to be an absolute obligation, without religious exception, is therefore necessary and welcome.
"We hope the recommendations will be enshrined in law and we look forward to working with legislators to strengthen proposals where necessary to adequately protect children from abuse."
CofE’s handling of abuse claims hampered by “culture of deference”
Posted: Thu, 6 Oct 2022 17:28
A "culture of deference" contributed to the mishandling of Church of England abuse claims, a review has found.
A three-year review of abuse allegations in the CofE found 383 new cases, with priests the most common perpetrators and children the main victims, according to a report published yesterday.
Most cases date back only to the 2000s and 2010s.
The review, which aimed to identify institutional failings in safeguarding and handling of abuse allegations, was the second carried out by the CofE, after the first in 2007 was found inadequate.
It found the CofE suffered a "culture of deference" towards bishops and other senior members and a "longstanding ethos where individuals felt unable to challenge back over safeguarding concerns".
It gave examples of a culture of protectionism which "allows alleged and convicted perpetrators to work and worship unchecked, failure to listen and act, disbelief and in some cases diverting blame on to the victim of abuse".
The review found allegations "were often dealt with informally, without appropriate investigations or records", and there were incidences where "belief in forgiveness and the right to worship outweighed safeguarding considerations".
It said there were instances of bias, including "misogyny, sexism and attitudes relating to women in the church, especially as ordained priests", in addition to same-sex relationships.
The CofE was also criticised for its stance on gay people this week by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw, who said the Church is "actively pursuing a campaign of discrimination" against lesbian and gay people, and questioned whether the "unique privileges" enjoyed by the Church are sustainable.
His criticism follows the Church barring the late archbishop Desmond Tutu's daughter, an ordained Anglican priest, from officiating at her godfather's funeral last month because she is in a same-sex marriage.
The NSS launched a campaign in August encouraging the public to write to their MPs and call for disestablishment in the wake of archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby affirming same-sex relationships are sinful at an international Anglican conference this year.
NSS: "Disestablishment can't come soon enough"
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "These appalling findings reveal the extent to which prioritising religious agendas and hierarchies has led to the mishandling of hundreds of cases of alleged child abuse in the Church of England.
"Disturbingly, most of these new cases were relatively recent. The Church evidently cannot be trusted to mark its own homework, making the case for mandatory reporting laws ever stronger.
"But there need to be broader questions regarding the Church's established status. Its atrocious record on abuse and its institutional homophobia, both of which are connected to its religiosity, make a mockery of any claims to special spiritual or moral insight. Disestablishment can't come soon enough."
