Jehovah’s Witnesses lose last ditch court case over abuse in care report
Published By admin with Comments 0
Jehovah’s Witnesses have failed in an eleventh hour attempt to block part of a lengthy report about abuse in care that is about them.
Recommendations from a report into abuse that occurred in state and faith-based care will be made public on Wednesday.
On Friday, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses Australasia filed for interim orders in the Court of Appeal to prevent part of the report about them from being published until their Supreme Court appeal is decided.
They filed to avoid scrutiny altogether.
They asked that part of the final report, a case study on Jehovah’s Witnesses, not be published on the Royal Commission’s website, that it be kept confidential and not reported on.
Justice Cooke declined the application in a judgement released on Tuesday, citing “considerable public interest” in the report and the fact they had waited till the “very last moment”.
He also said the chances of their success in the Supreme Court “must be regarded as low”.
Justice Cooke noted no affidavit evidence was filed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in support of the application.
“We nevertheless accept that the appellant has a position to preserve,” he said.
“Publicising the section of the report dealing with the issue of abuse by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith will likely have a reputational impact on the appellant, and the faith more generally.”
He said any subsequent decision of the Supreme Court concluding that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the Royal Commission to make such findings may mitigate that impact, but would not eliminate it.
“Having said that, we do not understand there to be a dispute that the Royal Commission received evidence of abuse engaged in by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith,” Cooke said.
“The appellant’s argument in this proceeding has been limited to arguing that the Royal Commission does not have jurisdiction to investigate and report on that abuse because it did not take place in a relevant “care” setting.
“But we nevertheless accept that the proposed order can be seen as necessary to preserve the appellant’s position.”
A spokesperson for the Australasian Branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses said in a statement: “We have serious concerns about the accuracy of the report regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses and have no choice but to resort to court to address these issues.
“Child protection is of utmost concern to Jehovah’s Witnesses and we believe the people of New Zealand, its decision-makers and most importantly survivors, deserve to be presented with accurate information.”
Justice Cooke said the report into abuse in care was “a matter of considerable public interest”.
“This has been a long-running inquiry in relation to matters that have had a significant impact on many people’s lives, in particular the survivors of abuse,” he said.
“There would need to be very compelling reasons before it would be appropriate for a court to prevent publicity over part of the report in those circumstances.”
Justice Cooke said it would be wrong to suppress part of the report.
“We consider that a report of this kind likely involves interrelated issues applying across state and faith-based care,” he said.
“The inquiries concerning the Jehovah’s Witnesses form part of an overall story which is properly told in the public interest.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/522908/jehovah-s-witnesses-lose-last-ditch-court-case-over-abuse-in-care-report.
