Australia's child abuse inquiry calls for changes

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday called for changes at all levels in its final hearing after five years of investigation.

Royal Commission chair Peter McClellan said that "there must be changes in the culture, structure and governance practices of many institutions", reports Efe news.

McClellan acknowledged that "there may be leaders and members of some institutions who resent the intrusion of the Royal Commission into their affairs", but added "if the problems we have identified are to be adequately addressed, changes must be made".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also attended the Commission's final sitting, during which Judge McClellan stressed that child abuse is not a matter of the past and urged the country to do everything to protect children.

"The tragic impact of abuse for individuals, and, through them, our entire society, demands nothing less," McClellan said in the hearing on Thursday, a day before the Commission presents its final report to the government.

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse was established at the end of 2012 by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

It has gathered the testimonies of some 8,013 people and interviewed about 1,300 witnesses.

Several high-ranking religious figures appeared in 57 public hearings, including Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's financial chief, as part of the investigation into 44 child abuse cases in Catholic institutions.

About 4,500 people have filed complaints about the Catholic Church in Australia concerning alleged child sexual abuse committed by some 1,880 members of the institution between 1980 and 2015, although some cases date back to the 1920s.

The Royal Commission has over the years made a series of recommendations on how to compensate the victims and proposed more severe punishments for abusers.

--IANS

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