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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday offered a rare national apology, only the second since 2008, to victims of institutional child sexual abuse and their families, bringing some survivors to tears. The gesture followed a five-year inquiry intoAustralia offers rare national apology to victims of child sex abuse
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday offered a rare national apology, only the second since 2008, to victims of institutional child sexual abuse and their families, bringing some survivors to tears. The gesture followed a five-year inquiry into child sexual abuse that delved into more than 8,000 cases of sexual misconduct, most of them at religious and state-run institutions responsible for keeping children safe. «Today, as a nation, we confront our failure to listen, to believe, and to provide justice,» Morrison told lawmakers in the Australian capital, Canberra. «We say sorry. To the children we failed, sorry. To the parents whose trust was betrayed and who have struggled to pick up the pieces, sorry.» Expressions of national regret such as Monday's are reserved for egregious misdeeds in which the state has played a role. In the previous instance in 2008, then prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to members of the Stolen Generations of indigenous Australians, forcibly taken from their families and communities as young children under assimilation policies. Morrison also repeated Monday's apology in a speech to nearly 800 victims, some of whom began to cry, images... Read more