It is devastating that there are institutions failing to join the National Redress Scheme

It is devastating to see that there are still institutions which fail to adequately acknowledge the devastation reaped on victims of child sexual abuse and be truly accountable.

Jehovah’s Witnesses reportedly continue to seek to deal with claims through an internal process. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse identified the systemic failure of closed organisations which were accountable only to themselves and effectively not accountable at all. This is precisely the culture of ongoing abuse, cover-up and revictimization which must stop now.

The Royal Commission strongly identified the need for external scrutiny and a National Redress Scheme to enable equity and fairness. Institutions who have failed to join the scheme are again failing those brutalised within them.

Institutions which believe they are different and special have a history of systemic layered abuse and compounded trauma to victims seeking justice and healing.

Not joining the scheme is utterly indefensible and institutions failing to do so must be sanctioned as the shame that victims so often carry sits squarely with them.

Dr Kezelman AM

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Dr Kezelman AM is a medical practitioner, mental health consumer advocate and President of Blue Knot Foundation National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma. She worked in medical practice for 20 years, mostly as a GP. Under her stewardship Blue Knot Foundation has grown from a peer support organisation to a national centre of excellence combining a prominent consumer voice with that of researchers, academics and clinicians advocating for socio-political trauma-informed change and informed responsiveness to complex trauma. Dr Kezelman was awarded an AM “for significant service to community health as a supporter and advocate for survivors of child abuse" in 2015.

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