Reaction of state secretary and arguments of judge about report jw abuse in The Netherlands
Minister Dekker: Report on Jehovah's sketches "extremely worrying" picture The report on the extent of sexual abuse within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses paints an extremely worrying picture. That is what Minister Sander Dekker of Legal Protection says. "Victims of sexual abuse feel insufficiently heard, ignored, stigmatized and isolated." Sander van Mersbergen 01-01-20, 16: 18Last update: 17:01
The minister is severely disappointed in the church. He first refused to investigate the subject himself, and then did not want to set up a hotline for victims. ,, To my displeasure, the board reacted negatively to this. Instead of focusing on creating more openness and recognition for the position of victims within the community, it denied the need for this. "
"Every board of an organization, including the community of Jehovah's Witnesses, which shows signs of sexual abuse, I expect that they will do everything they can to prevent sexual abuse. This is especially true with regard to children. As Minister for Legal Protection, it therefore touches me that so many vulnerable victims felt that they were on their own, had not experienced recognition, and had not, or only recently, found their way to justice and official aid agencies. "
Public
The report on sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses is just being made public. The judge in Utrecht ruled that that was allowed. The church wanted to stop publication.
According to the Jehovah's, the investigation is scientifically and factually incorrect, defamatory and very offensive. "The report wrongly attempts to justify the claim that Jehovah's Witnesses are a closed community and require special government intervention, including supervision of their children," write Jehovah's lawyers.
The court finds that a prohibition is only justified if there are special circumstances. This is a report about a widely shared healthcare. The report must lead to political decision-making. That makes the report very important for society, he says.
He also believes that the scientific quality of the publication is not under discussion and that the researchers are also transparent about the limitations. Judges are unsuccessful on most points by the judge. According to him, the investigators correctly state that the Jehovah's witnesses form a closed community. The judge also does not think that the researchers conclude that abuse is more common among the Jehovah's than elsewhere. According to the church, they did and that is a false claim.
Serious problem
Earlier today, this site reported on the results of the research at Utrecht University, which was commissioned by Minister Sander Dekker. It states that Jehovah's Witnesses have a serious problem with regard to sexual abuse, that they do not (or reluctantly) report allegations about this to the police and need "a sharpened state investigation" because they are a "closed community."
Victims of sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses who reported it are very negative about the handling of their complaint. Three quarters of the reporters gave an insufficient indication of how their complaint was handled, the most given figure was even 1. The researchers received no fewer than 751 reports.
Prior to the hearing, the judge indicated that he regretted that information from the case leaked.