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In media and public debate, in (church) political discourse and in the context of the debate on abuse within the Church, the issue of children’s rights is ‘very much in the spotlight’. This applies not only within the (Roman Catholic) Church, but wherever opportunities for abuse and corresponding attitudes on the part of the perpetrators, combined with a systemic tendency to ‘look the other way’ in social settings (such as sports clubs and leisure activities), have facilitated such crimes against young people. The Roman Catholic Church has been particularly hard hit by these allegations because the Church, which is (and is supposed to be) a Church of charity, now finds itself ‘in the pillory’ as the perpetrator. This inevitably raises the question of the validity and significance of children’s rights within the Church itself.
What drives a professor from Mittweida to champion children’s rights and their enshrinement in canon law? Professor Frank Czerner, holder of the Chair of Law in Social Work, says: “On the one hand, although I maintain a critical distance, I have been connected to the Church since my baptism at the age of 10, and I am interested in its legal system; on the other hand, the United Nations’ fundamental children’s rights are among the most important legal texts we have in both the international and national legal systems. In my book, I have attempted to bring these two areas together and to analyse whether, and to what extent, child protection is also reflected at the level of Catholic canon law.”
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 has been signed by almost every country in the world. It is therefore a globally binding treaty under international law for the protection of children and young people. This Convention has also been signed by the Holy See (not merely by the Vatican). Consequently, children’s rights also apply within the Roman Catholic Church and under canon law, the Codex Iuris Canonici, which was reformed by Pope Francis on 8 December 2021 in order to better protect victims in future. Children’s rights are therefore also on the agenda of the Roman Catholic Church and are inseparable from its self-understanding and its mission to protect the ‘salvation of souls’.
The Catholic Church is led by popes, who govern the Church ‘autonomously’; by virtue of their self-understanding, they are able to determine, for example, whether and to what extent they regulate the protection of victims within ecclesiastical criminal law. Consequently, ecclesiastical criminal law is not comparable to the secular criminal law of individual states:
- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, with regard to its human rights protection, is primarily addressed to states as ‘classic’ subjects of international law, which are required to implement international children’s rights through their national legislation, case law and administration within their national territory, for example in criminal law.
- In canon law, by contrast, the view is held that ecclesiastical criminal law need not protect legal interests such as life, physical health and sexual integrity (of children and young people) in the same way as the law of individual states: Thus, what is protected by state law (such as through provisions criminalising the mistreatment of persons under one’s care) need not also be (duplicated) in ecclesiastical criminal law. Consequently, the protection against violence under Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child finds only a partial counterpart in canon law with regard to serious forms of violence (murder, abduction by means of violence or deception, confinement, mutilation or serious bodily harm).
The rationale put forward in favour of this ‘restrained’ approach to criminal law protection within the Church with regard to the infliction of violence is that ecclesiastical (criminal) law is primarily concerned with the salvation of souls as the supreme law (of the entire body of canon law). Nevertheless, the Reformed ecclesiastical criminal law of 2021 – particularly with regard to sexual abuse – contains provisions that are very similar to the text of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, because these formulations from national law (primarily from Italy and Spain) have been incorporated into ecclesiastical law. As a result, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child also finds its way into Catholic canon law via ‘state detours’.
The protection of developing life, as set out in the international provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is fully reflected in canon law. By comparison, the German federal regulations concerning termination of pregnancy contain numerous gaps, particularly with regard to the protection of unborn children with disabilities. Roman Catholic canon law, by contrast, places every form of unborn life under its protection from the very beginning and is able to serve the ‘salvation of souls as the supreme law’ in a special way throughout the entire phase of human development and human life.
Czerner, Frank (2024): The Vatican as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? Implementation of child protection standards in the Codex Iuris Canonici following the Apostolic Constitution PASCITE GREGEM DEI and the Motu Proprio VOS ESTIS LUX MUNDI, based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Canonical Studies and Texts (KST), Volume 82: https://www.duncker-humblot.de/buch/der-vatikan-als-signatar-der-un-kinderrechte-konvention-9783428192991/?page_id=0&typ=buc
Text and photograph: Prof. Frank Czerner