Vatican smokescreen on human rights

The Vatican tries to quietly elevate Chuch doctrine above human rights. It has not signed some human rights treaties and in some others has made “reservations” which keep it from having to comply. This strategy gives the Church leverage, prevents it from being held accountable for priestly abuse, and protects its courts from charges that they violate the right to a fair trial.

“Human rights language is being co-opted by those with an anti-human rights agenda, among governments but also armed groups and even within civil society.” — Claudio Cordone, Secretary General, Amnesty International, 2010 [1]
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♦ Diplomatic recognition sought worldwide, bringing diplomatic immunity from charges of human rights abuse

Ratzinger's church lawyers have already assembled an elaborate defense strategy.
They argue that the pope, as the Vatican's head of state, enjoys immunity against lawsuits in US courts. They also point out that the American bishops who covered up abuse cases are not employees subject to directives from Vatican City. [7]

In U.S. courts foreign countries are generally immune from civil actions. This means that unless a case can be brought in under an exemption (as below), the only recourse may be to try to sue the Vatican in a country which does not have diplomatic relations with it. However, as the map shows, most of the world's countries (coloured blue) already recognise the statehood of the Holy See, as the Vatican is called officially.

There are very few (gray) countries left which don't yet have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. These amount to just three island nations (the Comoros, north of Madagascar, the Maldives, southwest of India, and Tuvalu, north of New Zealand) — two African nations (Mauritania and Somalia) — three from the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Oman and Afghanistan) — and the eight from Asia (Bhutan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia). [8] The logistics of suing the Vatican from some of these countries could be daunting. Furthermore, due to the Vatican's persistent diplomatic efforts, the number of countries which don't recognise the Vatican is declining every year (and one of the few left, Tuvalu, is gradually disappearing beneath the rising seas).

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