ICC must be allowed to carry out work ‘without intimidation’, say 93 member states

The Guardian, Harry Davies, Sat 15 Jun 2024

Joint statement of support for international criminal court issued following revelations of Israeli interference 

The international criminal court has been the subject of efforts by Israel and its intelligence
agencies to undermine, influence and intimidate. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

The international criminal court must be allowed to carry out its work “without intimidation”, a group of 93 states has said in a significant public intervention intended to reinforce support for the judicial body. 

In a joint statement issued late on Friday issued late on Friday, the large group of ICC member states vowed to defend the institution and “preserve its integrity from any political interference and pressure against the court, its officials and those cooperating with it”. 

The show of unity for the court and its staff comes in the wake of revelations published by the Guardian about efforts by Israel and its intelligence agencies to undermine, influence and intimidate the court as part of a nine-year campaign of surveillance and espionage. 

It also follows recent warnings by the office of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that it has been subjected to “several forms of threats” and hostile intelligence activity apparently intended to interfere with and improperly influence the prosecutor’s work. 

Last month, Khan announced that he has filed applications for arrest warrants against senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he alleged had been committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. 

Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, is the first time an ICC prosecutor has taken such action against the leaders of a close western ally. The move provoked a fierce response from Israel and its allies in the US. 

The statement supporting the ICC was drafted by five of the court’s member states – Belgium, Chile, Jordan, Senegal and Slovenia – and is understood to have been presented to the rest of the court’s state parties last week for their endorsement. 

A diplomatic source familiar with the effort said the disclosures about Israeli intelligence operations against the court had been “really eye-opening for a lot of diplomats” and “made some realise that it’s time to put out some sort of statement from the states that belong to the court responding to what has now come to light”. 

However, they said the statement was also a response to other recent forms of hostile activity against the ICC, such as a cyber-attack last year, and came as the prosecutor is conducting an investigation into senior Russian political and military figures allegedly involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. 

“The court is going after some very powerful people, not just in the Palestine investigation, and it’s time to send a message that the state parties are there to defend it,” the source said. 

Longtime ICC observers said it was notable that major western powers such as Germany, France, Canada and the UK had supported the statement, which called on “all states to ensure full cooperation with the court for it to carry out its important mandate”. 

They also pointed to the large number of endorsing states – 93 of the ICC’s 124 members – and noted that previous statements rallying around the court had not garnered as much support. 

“This is a unique moment of international solidarity, with 93 ICC states parties standing up for global justice and accountability for mass atrocities,” Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights’s representative to the ICC, said. 

“They are collectively opposing the egregious threats to the court from powerful countries including Israel, the US and Russia, and strongly rejecting their efforts to manipulate the rule of law for political gains,” she added.

Pope urges UN reform after Ukraine war, Covid ‘limits’

Dgital Journal – AFP, October 16, 2022 

Pope Francis in his new book called for the reform of the UN after the pandemic
and the Ukraine war showed its 'limits' - Copyright AFP

Pope Francis said the need to reform the United Nations was “more than obvious” after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war exposed its limits, in an extract of his new book published Sunday. 

The Argentine pontiff said Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine highlighted the need to ensure the current multilateral structure — especially the UN Security Council — finds “more agile and effective ways of resolving conflicts”. 

“In wartime, it is essential to affirm that we need more multilateralism and a better multilateralism,” but the UN is no longer fit for “new realities”, he added in an extract published by La Stampa daily. 

The organisation was founded to prevent the horrors of two World Wars from happening again, but although the threat represented by those conflicts was still alive, “today’s world is no longer the same”, said Francis. 

“The necessity of these reforms became more than obvious after the pandemic” when the current multilateral system “showed all its limits”, he added. 

Francis denounced the unequal distribution of vaccines as a “glaring example” of the law of the strongest prevailing over solidarity. 

The 85-year-old advocated “organic reforms” aimed at allowing international organisations to rediscover their essential purpose of “serving the human family” and said international institutions must be the result of the “widest possible consensus”. 

The pope also proposed guaranteeing food, health, economic and social rights on which international institutions would base their decisions. 

Francis’s new book, “I ask you in the name of God: Ten prayers for a future of hope”, is due to come out in Italy Tuesday. 

Global tax deal backed by 130 nations

Yahoo – AFP, Jürgen HECKER, July 1, 2021 

US digital giants are the main targets of the new tax

A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the OECD said on Thursday, but some EU states refused to sign up. 

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed at a rate of at least 15 percent once the deal is implemented. 

The new tax regime will add some $150 billion to government coffers globally once it comes into force, which the OECD said it hoped would be in 2023. 

"The framework updates key elements of the century-old international tax system, which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised 21st century economy," the OECD said. 

The formal agreement follows an endorsement by the G7 group of wealthy nations last month, and negotiations now move to a meeting of the G20 group of developed and emerging economies on July 9-10 in Venice, Italy. 

US President Joe Biden said the latest deal "puts us in striking distance of full global agreement to halt the race to the bottom for corporate taxes." 

Germany, another backer of the tax reform, hailed it as a "colossal step towards tax justice", and France said it was "the most important tax agreement in a century". 

British finance minister Rishi Sunak, whose country holds the G7 presidency, said "the fact that 130 countries across the world, including all of the G20, are now on board, marks a further step in our mission to reform global tax". 

'In everyone's interest'

But EU low-tax countries Ireland and Hungary declined to sign up to the agreement reached in the OECD framework, the organisation said, highlighting lingering divisions on global taxation. 

Both countries are part of a group of EU nations also including Luxembourg and Poland that have relied on low tax rates to attract multinationals and build their economies. 

Ireland, the EU home to tech giants Facebook, Google and Apple, has a corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent. 

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned that the new rules could see Ireland lose 20 percent of its corporate revenue. 

On Thursday, Donohoe said Ireland still "broadly supports" the deal, but not the 15-percent tax floor. 

The tax plan got a much-needed boost from Joe Bidens's administration

"There is much to finalise before a comprehensive agreement is reached", he said, adding that Ireland would "constructively engage" in further discussions. 

Also expressing concerns is Switzerland -- known for its banking secrecy laws -- which said it would support the measures despite "major reservations" and that it hoped the interests of "small, innovative countries" be taken into account. 

An agreement for the implementation of the plan is planned for October. 

Nine of the 139 participants in the talks have so far not signed on to the agreement. 

But China, whose position was being closely watched as it offers tax incentives to key sectors, endorsed the agreement. 

"It is in everyone's interest that we reach a final agreement among all Inclusive Framework Members as scheduled later this year," said OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann. 

"This package does not eliminate tax competition, as it should not, but it does set multilaterally agreed limitations on it," Cormann said, adding that "it also accommodates the various interests across the negotiating table, including those of small economies and developing jurisdictions". 

'More equitable' global economy 

Finance chiefs have characterised a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate. 

For Biden, a global tax agreement will help maintain US competitiveness since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs programme with a price tag of around $2 trillion. 

Biden -- whose tax plans face a potentially uphill battle in Congress -- hailed an "important step in moving the global economy forward to be more equitable for workers and middle class families in the United States and around the world." 

He noted that those nations who signed up make up more than 90 percent of the world's economy. 

The OECD's statement said the package "will provide much-needed support to governments needing to raise necessary revenues" to fix their budgets and invest in measures to back the post-Covid recovery. 

Oxfam, a charity, meanwhile said that the deal fell short of a tax level needed to give poorer countries a sufficient share of additional tax revenue. 

Calling the deal "skewed-to-the-rich and completely unfair", Oxfam said that signatories had missed a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a profoundly more equal world".

Gay rights across the globe

Yahoo – AFP, October 22, 2019

Same-sex marriage and abortion laws in Northern Ireland were liberalised in a
landmark shift for the province aimed at bringing it into line with mainland
Britain (AFP Photo/Paul Faith)

Paris (AFP) - Thirty years after the first-ever gay civil unions in Denmark, same-sex marriages are today allowed in 28 countries, but homosexuality remains illegal in some parts of the world.

After the liberalisation of same sex marriage came into force in Northern Ireland on Monday, here is an overview of the global situation.

- Europe, gay marriage pioneers -

On October 1, 1989, for the first time in the world, several gay couples in Denmark tied the knot in legal civil unions.

Danish homosexual couples would, however, have to wait until 2012 to be allowed to marry in church.

The right to a religious marriage ceremony was first allowed in The Netherlands in 2001.

Thirteen European countries followed: Belgium, Britain (although originally not Northern Ireland), Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Austria allowed gay marriage from 2019.

On October 1, 1989, for the first time in the world, gay couples in Denmark tied 

the knot in legal civil unions, but would have to wait until 2012 to be allowed to 

marry in church (AFP Photo/LISELOTTE SABROE)

Some countries allow only gay civil partnerships including Croatia, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland.

The Czech government has backed draft legislation that would make the country the first post-communist member of the European Union to legalise same-sex marriage, but its fate is uncertain.

Slovenia also allows civil partnerships but in 2015 rejected in a referendum a proposal to legalise gay marriage.

In 2014 Estonia became the first former Soviet republic to authorise same-sex civil unions.

In Romania a referendum aimed at enshrining a ban on gay marriage in the constitution failed in 2018 because of a low turnout.

Progress in the Americas

Canada was the first American country to authorise same-sex marriage in 2005.

In 2015 the US Supreme Court legalised gay marriage nationwide at a time it was banned in 14 out of 50 states.

In 2015 the US Supreme Court legalised gay marriage nationwide at a time 

it was banned in 14 out of 50 states (AFP Photo/Yana Paskova)

The United States' first gay marriage had actually taken place in 1971, when a Minnesota couple obtained a marriage licence thanks to an overlooked legal loophole. The marriage was officially recognised in March 2019, after a five-decade legal battle.

In Latin America five countries allow same-sex marriages: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, joined by Ecuador in June 2019.

Mexico's federal capital authorised gay civil unions in 2007 and marriages in 2009. Half of its 32 states have followed.

Chile legalised gay civil unions in 2015.

Costa Rica's Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional and gave parliament 18 months to amend the laws.

Cuba left out of its new constitution adopted in February 2019 changes that would have paved the way for legal same-sex marriage. The definition of marriage will be left to a new Family Code which will be put to a referendum.

While much of Asia is tolerant of homosexuality, Taiwan became in May 2019

the first in the region to allow gay marriage (AFP Photo/Sam YEH)

Taiwan, first in Asia

While much of Asia is tolerant of homosexuality, Taiwan became in May 2019 the first in the region to allow gay marriage.

In the Middle East, where homosexuality is repressed, Israel leads the way in terms of gay rights, recognising same-sex marriages that are performed elsewhere although not allowing such unions in the country itself.

Several countries in the conservative region still have the death penalty for homosexuality, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Australia (2017) and New Zealand (2013) are the only places in the wider Asia-Pacific region to have passed gay marriage laws.

- Africa: marriage in one country -

South Africa is the sole nation on the African continent to allow gay marriage, which it legalised in 2006.

Around 30 African countries ban homosexuality, with Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan having the death penalty for same-sex relations.

US set to stay in global postal union after reform deal reached

Yahoo – AFP, September 25, 2019

The US pushed for the reform of setting international postal rates as it said the
current system it was cheaper to send a package to New York from Beijing than
Los Angeles, which hurt its domestic businesses (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)

Geneva (AFP) - The United States is set to remain in the UN postal agency after member states on Wednesday decided to reform the body to address Washington's criticism that its rules unfairly benefit China.

The Universal Postal Union's 192 members agreed by acclamation to a compromise supported by the US to reform the system used to determine the rates countries' postal services can charge for ensuring that packages from abroad reach their final destination.

Following days of intense negotiations in Geneva, the parties gathered for only the third extraordinary congress in UPU's 145-year history opted for a compromise under the looming threat of a US pull-out.

President Donald Trump's administration announced last October that it planned to withdraw from the UPU in a year unless it underwent dramatic reform.

UPU chief Bishar Hussein had warned Tuesday that if Washington did withdraw, it would cause a "total disruption" of the postal service in the country and dramatic hikes to consumer costs.

Trump's 'objectives' met

Trump's hardline trade advisor Peter Navarro insisted earlier this week that the US was well-prepared for "a possible seamless exit" if no acceptable reform agreement could be reached.

But shortly before Wednesday's decision, he told the assembly that the reform proposal, which implies that countries will be permitted as of next year to gradually set their own rates for postal deliveries, "does indeed meet the objectives that President Donald J. Trump gave me."

He vowed that if the UPU members voted for the proposal "in its entirety" the US would stay.

"Let's get this done," he said.

The standoff at the UPU, which sets international postal rates, came amid Trump's broader trade battle with China, with the US charging that the current system penalises American businesses.

The agency, based in Bern, has until now determined what rates national postal services can charge for ensuring that packages sent from abroad are delivered to their final destination.

It has long imposed lower prices for bulky letters and small parcels coming from emerging and developing countries, a group that still includes China.

Navarro has maintained that under the current system it costs more to send a package from Los Angeles to New York than from Beijing to New York, penalising US small businesses and manufacturers.

According to Washington, it costs the US $300-500 million annually under the current system.

The US had pushed for a radical and immediate reform of the UPU enabling members to "immediately self-declare rates", but that option was voted down on Tuesday.

Navarro had however said the US would be open to a "multi-speed option", that would allow a transition period for countries to transition to self-declared rates.

No country meeting global goals for gender equality: study

Yahoo – AFP, June 5, 2019

The UN survey shows richer countries like Finland have made the most
progress on gender equality (AFP Photo/Roni Rekomaa)

Vancouver (AFP) - No country is on track to achieve the gender equality called for in the United Nations's development blueprint, a report released on Tuesday said.

In 2015, all United Nations member states adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve by 2030 in areas such as education, climate, and gender equality.

But the new report says countries aren't on the right track to meet the gender equality benchmark, which requires eliminating discrimination and violence against women and ending harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.

"We're literally failing to deliver on the gender equality promises made in the (SDGs) for billions of girls and women," said Alison Holder, director of Equal Measures 2030, which put together the SDG Gender Index report.

"Even more worrying for me is 1.4 billion girls and women live in countries that got a 'very poor' failing score on the index," she said, speaking on the sidelines of the Women Deliver gender equality conference in Vancouver.

Using data from 129 countries, the survey shows that wealthy nations like Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands were making the most progress while poor or unstable countries such as Chad, DR Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Yemen and Niger were falling behind.

Some poorer countries did make gains, with Senegal closer to achieving 

gender parity in its parliament than Denmark (AFP Photo/SEYLLOU)

There were also "pockets of good news even in struggling countries," said Holder.

For example, Senegal is closer to achieving gender parity in its parliament than Denmark, even though Senegal's GDP is 56 times lower.

However, no country has fully achieved gender equality, the report said.

The findings of the index indicate a lack of political will to invest in advancing gender equality, according to Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, chief executive officer of Plan International, a child rights charity that contributed to the report.

She hopes to see advocacy groups and activists take up the data from the gender index and use it to mount "clever political campaigns to generate actions."

The survey isn't the first to show the tough road ahead for the SDGs.

A report released last month said that despite 150 million people gaining access to electricity every year, the SDG of assuring affordable and clean energy was not on track to be reached.

Related Article:

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Amal Clooney named UK media freedom envoy

Yahoo – AFP, April 5, 2019

Lebanese-British human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney was named special envoy
for the media by the British government (AFP Photo/Damien MEYER)

Dinard (France) (AFP) - Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney said it had "never been more dangerous to report the news" on Friday as she was appointed special envoy for media freedom by the British government.

Clooney has been tasked with heading a new panel of legal experts who will advise the British government on how to encourage other countries to promote transparency and protect media workers.

"We are here because it's never been more dangerous to report the news," Clooney told a press conference on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Dinard, northern France.

"According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, in the last five years, we've seen the highest number of journalists imprisoned since their records began over three decades ago," she added.

Clooney said her legal panel could propose reforms to repressive laws in countries and she raised the idea of sanctions that could be used on regimes "that have abused journalists."

Her experience defending journalists in countries such a Egypt and Myanmar "has shown me how easily vague laws and corrupt courts can be used to silence dissent and muzzle the media."

In December last year, Clooney blasted US President Donald Trump for giving a "green light" to regimes to persecute journalists through his anti-press rhetoric.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Friday that "democratic countries need to stand together to make it an international taboo of the highest order to order the arrest or detain journalists for doing their job."

EU expands tax blacklist to 15 countries, including UAE

Yahoo – AFP, March 12, 2019

The "naming and shaming" of countries into better tax policies comes only days
after a money-laundering blacklist by the EU was torpedoed by the bloc's own
member governments, after a draft included Saudi Arabia (AFP Photo/Emmanuel
DUNAND)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union expanded its tax haven blacklist to 15 countries on Tuesday, adding the United Arab Emirates and Bermuda over the objections of powerful member states such as Italy.

The list was first drawn up in 2017 in the wake of several scandals, including the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, that pushed the EU into doing more to fight tax evasion by multinationals and the rich.

Seven countries are to be moved back from a grey list because reform commitments had not been met. These are Aruba, Belize, Bermuda, Fiji, Oman, Vanuatu and Dominica, an EU statement said.

They are joined by three other countries whose tax policies have grown more aggressive in the past months. They are Barbados, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands.

Italy long resisted the addition of the UAE. The Middle East powerhouse has recently made significant investments in the economically troubled European country.

Rome had wanted to keep the Emirates on the so-called grey list of countries that have made pledges to get their tax laws in order with a standard set by Brussels.

"Everything will be solved" when new legislation in passed in the UAE, Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria said. "The Emirates will come out immediately afterwards."

Britain, just weeks before its planned divorce from the EU on March 29, resisted the addition of its overseas territory Bermuda but relented last week.

Five countries remain blacklisted because they did nothing to justify moving them off the original list of tax havens: American Samoa, Guam, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands

This "naming and shaming" of countries into better tax policies comes only days after a money-laundering blacklist by the EU was torpedoed by the bloc's own member governments, after a draft included Saudi Arabia.

Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici, whose country holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency, earlier told reporters that last minute promises by countries to fix their tax policies would delay the list until May.

However French counterpart Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister said he wanted no delays.

"France wants the list to be adopted today," he said.

Pope compares child sex abuse to 'human sacrifice'

Yahoo  - AFP, 24 February 2019

Pope Francis has called for "concrete measures" and handing 114 senior
bishops a roadmap to shape the debate on how to stop child sex abuse by priests

Pope Francis on Sunday compared the sexual abuse of children to human sacrifice as he addressed the Catholic Church's top bishops at the end of a landmark summit to tackle paedophilia.

"Our work has made us realise once again that the gravity of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors is, and historically has been, a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies," he said.

"I am reminded of the cruel religious practice, once widespread in certain cultures, of sacrificing human beings – frequently children – in pagan rites," he added.

Francis was speaking after a four-day meeting which he had opened by calling for "concrete measures" on tackling priests and handing 114 senior bishops a roadmap to shape the debate on how to stop a global scandal.

"If in the Church there should emerge even a single case of abuse – which already in itself represents an atrocity – that case will be faced with the utmost seriousness".

The ongoing scandals have hit countries around the world, with recent cases affecting Australia, Chile, Germany and the US.

Francis said those who priests who pray on children are "tools of Satan".

"No explanations suffice for these abuses involving children," the Argentine pontiff said.

"The echo of the silent cry of the little ones who, instead of finding in them fathers and spiritual guides encountered tormentors, will shake hearts dulled by hypocrisy and by power.

"It is our duty to pay close heed to this silent, choked cry," he added.

World bishops head to Vatican for sex abuse summit

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine MARCIANO, February 17, 2019

Pope Francis has warned anyone expecting a quick fix to sex abuse by clerics
that "the problem of abuse will continue" (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis gathers bishops from around the world at the Vatican this week for a hotly-awaited summit on tackling the wave of child sex abuse scandals assailing the Catholic Church.

The heads of around 100 bishops' conferences from every continent will convene from Thursday to Sunday for the meeting on the protection of minors, with victims' groups demanding that a concrete action plan on fighting paedophilia be drawn up.

The pope, who asked the bishops to speak to victims of abuse in their respective countries before the Rome convention, has tried to dial down "inflated expectations" for a cure-all.

Several victims were also invited to the Vatican.

"I ask you to pray for this meeting," the pope said Sunday, adding that he wanted the meeting "as an act of strong pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time."

The conference aims to be an opportunity to improve awareness of the global phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors within the Church, despite many in Africa, Asia and the Middle East being in denial of what they call "a Western problem".

In many parts of the world, discussing violence towards children and even sex is taboo, leading the Vatican to organise this week's "educational" gathering.

Some abuse victims, particularly from countries where their plight is ignored, have also been invited to attend.

"Someone who has met a victim, heard their cries for help, their tears, their psychological and physical wounds, can't remain the same," said German Jesuit priest Hans Zollner, a psychologist who travels the world educating priests and is one of the conference's organisers.

A complaint against Italian bishop Luigi Ventura, 74, the Apostolic Nuncio to France, 

for sexual assault is being investigated in France (AFP Photo/REMY GABALDA)

"The Catholic Church has been faced with this problem for the last 35 years," he said, hailing rigorous preventative measures taken in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland and the United States.

"It works: the number of new accusations of sexual assault in all these countries is now minimal," he said.

The aim is for the heads of the world's episcopal conferences to achieve "a feeling of collective responsibility" said Father Federico Lombardi, who will be leading debates during the conference.

"The credibility of the Church is at stake," he said.

'A decisive moment'

The summit comes after Pope Francis defrocked a former cardinal -- American Theodore McCarrick -- over accusations he sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago.

McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican's College of Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse.

Chilean Vatican expert Luis Badilla said the meeting would be a "decisive moment for the pontificate".

"We want this meeting to result in concrete measures," he said, echoing victims' hopes for the conference, being held in the wake of paedophile scandals that have shaken the Church particularly in Chile and in the United States.

The summit's title, concerning "the protection of minors", avoids using the words "sex" or "paedophilia", noted Badilla.

Factfile on major sex abuse allegations relating to the Catholic Church. (AFP Photo/)

That reflects the Church's centuries-old instinct to protect its image, he said. But added "the only way to emerge from the crisis is to tell the whole truth".

In France, prosecutors said Friday they were investigating a sexual assault complaint made against the Vatican's envoy to Paris, 74-year-old Luigi Ventura.

He is accused of molesting an official at the Paris mayor's office, a judicial source told AFP.

The pope has already warned those hoping the four-day meet will be a panacea that "the problem of abuse will continue".

"By resolving the problem within the Church, through becoming aware, we will contribute to resolving it within society, within families, where the shame means everything is hidden," Francis said.

The meeting will come up with "protocols for moving forward", because "sometimes bishops don't know what to do," he said.

Father Zollner is also wary of people hoping for a magic wand of "new norms" that will make the problem simply disappear.

Bishops must "change their attitude", which can be more difficult than drawing up new rules or guidelines, he said.

The scale of the problem is impossible to measure statistically.

A study in the United States said that between three and four percent of the clergy were involved in abuse before 2002, when stricter guidelines were published, said Zollner.

While the Catholic Church says it is trying to address the problem, other churches are also affected.

In the United States, the Protestant Southern Baptist Convention has been hit by a wide-ranging sex abuse scandal involving almost 400 pastors, volunteers and teachers over two decades.