The Protestant Church in Germany, with 21 million members, has announced an intention to set up a Commission to investigation allegations of sexual assaults in care facilities and institutions run by it. An investigation was launched last year and at least 770 victims have been identified to date, many of whom are children.

Nun Kirsten Ferris, a spokesperson for the Federation of Churches comprised of 20 different churches has announced that some of the attacks took place inside the church. An investigation fund of 2.3 million euros has been set aside for the investigation so far. However victims are critical of the church, and consider it has been slow to react and for not focusing on victims and the need to make reparations.

Several reports have now been published in Germany relating to historic allegations of sexual abuse.  Recently the justice minister, Katarina Barley drew attention to a ‘Shocking’ report by the Catholic Church of sexual abuse of children by German clergy between 1946 and 2014, with 3,677 child victims identified and 1,670 perpetrators, many of whom are priests. It was felt this disclosure may be ‘the tip of the iceberg’. The report was compiled using data collected from 27 German dioceses.

Written by Jagdeep Hayre at BLM

jagdeep.hayre@blmlaw.com