The Pope of the Vatican extends the sexual assault law to include individuals outside the Church

Pope Francis is expanding the rules for dealing with sexual assault in the Roman Catholic Church to general Catholic leaders, and has said that both minors and adults can be victims.

Pope Francis on Saturday updated the rules for dealing with sexual assault in the Roman Catholic Church, extending them to lay Catholic leaders and making clear that both minors and adults can be victims.

The pope issued a landmark decision in 2019 obligating all priests and members of religious communities to report any suspicion of abuse and holding bishops directly accountable for any abuse they commit or conceal.

Those rulings were initially imposed on a temporary basis, but on Saturday the Vatican said they would become final from April 30 and would include additional elements aimed at strengthening the fight against attacks within the Church.

The scandals of the attacks tore the reputation of the Vatican in many countries and represented a major challenge to Pope Francis, who approved a series of measures over ten years, all aimed at holding the church hierarchy accountable.

Critics say the results are mixed and accuse Pope Francis of reluctance to remove dissenting bishops.

The new rules now cover leaders of Vatican-approved organizations run by laypeople, not just priests, following several accusations in recent years against public leaders accused of abusing their positions to sexually exploit those under their care.

The original rules covered sexual acts aimed at “minors and the vulnerable,” but the new version introduces a broader definition of victims, referring to crimes committed “against a minor, a person habitually using reason in a disturbed manner, or a vulnerable adult.

France Human rights organizations condemn police violence during pension reform demonstrations

Non-governmental human rights organizations have condemned the violence of the French police during the nationwide demonstrations against reforming the pension system. The Human Rights League accused the authorities of violating "citizens' right to protest through the disproportionate and dangerous use of force".

Several organizations for the defense of human rights reported that the demonstrations organized as part of a continuous mobilization that has been going on for two months in France to protest the reform of the pension system, were marred by riots, accompanied by violent police practices in recent days.

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, made the same accusation, saying: “The sporadic acts of violence of some demonstrators or other reprehensible acts committed by others during a demonstration do not justify the excessive use of force by state agents. Nor are these acts sufficient to deny peaceful demonstrators the freedom of assembly.” ".

In contrast, NGOs adopted a more scathing tone.

"The authoritarian drift of the French state, the violentization of relations by the police, acts of violence of all kinds, and impunity are all a resounding scandal," said LDH President Patrick Baudouin.

The association accused the authorities of violating "citizens' right to protest through the disproportionate and dangerous use of force."

Human Rights Watch, for its part, criticized the "arbitrary crowd containment and riot control tactics".

black block

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan said that the police were content to move to confront the "extremist turn" taken by the "vandals" of the "extreme left" who infiltrate the demonstrators to provoke riots.

The authorities said that about 1,500 "terrorists", members of the so-called "Black Bloc", which are extremist groups of terrorists, infiltrated the protest procession in Paris on Thursday. And 441 policemen and gendarmes were injured during Thursday's demonstrations throughout France.

Since the bill was passed without a vote in parliament last week, videotapes have circulated on social media showing French police officers pushing or beating demonstrators.

"It seems that the French authorities have not learned lessons and have not reviewed their policies and practices in crowd containment," said Benedict Janreau, director of Human Rights Watch in France, since the 2018 and 2019 yellow vest demonstrations, to which he compares the current movement.