ECA GLOBAL NEWS
FEBRUARY 2020
ECA Joins Deaf Argentine Survivors To Deliver A Report To The United Nations
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FEBRUARY 17-22, 2020
In a historic verdict on November 2019 in Mendoza, Argentina, two priests were found guilty of sexually abusing deaf children at a Catholic-run school in Argentina and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison. See more details in ECA's November Newsletter.
ECA is joining a number of these Provolo deaf survivors from Argentina and their attorneys from the Human Rights organization Xumek in Geneva, who will present a report that questions ecclesiastical action in the case of the Antonio Próvolo Institute in Mendoza. The report will be delivered to the United Nations Committee against Torture and the United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child, which in 2014 issued a series of recommendations for the Church to collaborate in the Ordinary Justice investigations into cases of sexual abuse.
The group will then travel to Rome, for the First Anniversary of the Papal Sexual Abuse Summit where they will meet up with other deaf survivors and survivor-activists of clergy sexual abuse and a worldwide group of archivists dedicated to bishop accountability. A series of public activities are being planned. Visit the ECA Global website for more details and to participate.
Press Reports on the UN meetings:
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Deaf Argentine Survivors Request Public Meeting with Pope Francis
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JANUARY 30, 2020.
The Argentine Provolo deaf survivors sent a letter to Pope Francis requesting a public meeting with him while they are in Rome. The deaf survivors will be joined by Xumek: the human rights lawyers who represent them and members of ECA and BishopAccountability.org
Dear Pope Francis.
We write to you as deaf survivors of clerical sexual abuse in your home country.
We were raped, sexually assaulted and physically tortured by Catholic priests, nuns and lay people employed by the Company of Mary for the Education of the Deaf, a congregation that answers to the Vatican and to you.
This situation involves almost two generations of children who were abused while in the care and safety of your Church.
Our story goes to the very heart of the cover-up of these crimes within our country. The crimes were not secret either to church officials in Argentina or to Vatican officials as proven in criminal investigations and prosecutions carried out in the city of La Plata and in the province of Mendoza.
This must stop. We will no longer be silent.
The full letter in Spanish and English can be viewed on ECA's website. (La carta completa en español e inglés puede verse en el sitio web de la ECA).
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DEFENDER OF THE FAITH will be screened in Rome on Friday February 21, 2020 in the Foreign Press Room, via dell’umilta, 83, 00187 Roma at 2:00 p.m.
The film tells the story of Joseph Ratzinger who, in an increasingly secularized world, sought to make the Church a relevant force again but instead, during his reign as Pope Benedict XVI, led it into the biggest crisis in its history. Told via interviews with close advisors and friends, the documentary recounts the events that led to the scandals and Benedict's ultimate resignation whilst at the same time portraying his decision as symptomatic of a
deep-rooted, structural crisis at the heart of the Church that is on-going to this day.
To make his film, the writer and director Christoph Röhl has worked closely with the Vatican, gaining permission to shoot in its grounds and access to its audio-visual archives.
DIRECTOR CHRISTOPH RÖHL will be present for a question and answer session after the screening in Rome on Friday February 21, 2020.
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CRIN Report
To Be Launched In Ecuador And Peru In March
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CRIN, The Child Rights International Network based in London, has issued a Report on Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy in Latin America.
This report is due to be launched in March in Ecuador and Peru. With this opportunity, two survivor-leaders and members of ECA (Ending Clerical Abuse) from Spain (Miguel Hurtado) and Chile (Fernando Brierley) will participate in discussions in both countries. The purpose of the event is to support, with their testimonies, the efforts that Ecuadorian and Peruvian victims are making to
achieve justice.
In Ecuador, the National Coalition against Sexual Abuse of Children (COCASEN) will be in charge of this project. COCASEN is a citizen's collective constituted in Ecuador with the participation of victims, private institutions and individual human rights defenders, all interested in the removal of child sexual abuse from all areas of the children's daily life: family, educational system, church and public spaces. The objective of this Coalition is to
capitalize and continue promoting the agreements that were taken within the AAMPETRA Commission, where 11 public institutions committed themselves to make a real change in the treatment of this violence that thousands of children and adolescents in our society have to live with.
In Ecuador, activities are being organized in three cities: Quito, Ambato and Cuenca where it will culminate with the launch of the Report for Latin America and the World. The visit will take place on March 18, 19 and 20, 2020
Political and religious lobbying and media outreach activities will take place in all three cities. A round table is expected to be held in Quito, bringing together the main authorities of the justice system and the executive branch involved in the process of investigating and punishing abusers and the institutions that should guarantee the restoration of victims' rights, to discuss the shortcomings in the protection of children and adolescents in
Ecuador, the right of victims to time to report and the legal consequences of this.
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Read More in English y en Español
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If you experienced sexual violence or know of anyone who has, and you wish to talk to someone, reach The Totya Platform at our free and anonymous hotline: 0800 220 630
(Uganda only)
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Sebastian Cuattromo, Argentina Survivor/Founder,
Adultxs por los derechos de la infancia
"As adult survivors of the crime of sexual abuse and as representatives of our collective association, we are happy to have met new colleagues who, like us, have the conviction to fight to end the sexual abuse of children in the world. It was a great pleasure...
Hopefully we can continue to work together for justice for survivors and for the protection of today's children."
Sebatián Cuattromo and Silvia Piceda
Founding members of the Civil Association “Adults for Children´s Rights”
Zero Tolerance + Zero Cover Up = Truth and Justice
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BE AN ECA SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR
ECA’s Social Media Ambassadors Program is an exciting and easy way FOR YOU to get involved with ECA and to encourage existing members who know and love the mission of ECA to spread the word about ECA globally.
ECA will utilize Social Media Ambassadors to direct strong social media campaigns and ECA messages to target specific regions and issues relating to the sexual abuse of children by clergy.
ECA has a number of campaigns in the pipeline and we need you to get involved. Together we will #EnditNOW!
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