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Children’s rights and child protection form part of Professor Dr Frank Czerner’s day-to-day academic work. He teaches law at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences on the ‘Social Work’ and ‘General and Digital Forensic Science’ degree programmes. However different the two degree programmes may be, it is clear that the topic plays a key role in both. Criminal procedure law and criminal law are just as concerned with child protection standards as are child and youth welfare law, family law and (social) data protection law. Beyond individual national or sector-specific regulations, children’s rights – like human rights in general – are of global significance. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 reflects this significance. It has been signed by 196 states, including – very early on, as the fourth signatory – the Holy See as a non-state subject of international law, that is to say, by the Pope as the highest representative of the Roman Catholic Church.
This is where Czerner’s research interest lies, for which he took a sabbatical in 2022. He spent most of this period, from April to July 2022, in Rome at the Görres Society’s institute there, within Vatican City and in the immediate vicinity of the seven Pontifical Universities, whose libraries were to provide him with answers to his question: To what extent is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) reflected in Roman Catholic canon law, the Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC)? The provisions of the CIC concern both the internal constitution of the Roman Catholic Church and its external relations, as well as its relationship with the faithful. Can the text of the UNCRC be regarded as an interpretative aid for the protection of children’s welfare, or even as a directive for the interpretation of the CIC? Can the obligation under international law, which the Catholic Church assumed by signing the UN CRC, therefore also have implications for Catholic canon law?
To understand the significance of this issue
, Czerner argues, one must realise that the Pope
, as head of the global Roman Catholic Church, has sent out an important signal here – not the Vatican as a state, but the Holy See, although this is also binding on the Vatican. The Pope represents here the Holy See, that is, the Church, and also the Vatican, that is, the State of Vatican City. In this respect, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to the entire Roman Catholic Church worldwide – and therefore also to the Vatican.
Canon law and children’s rights
Czerner was the first to conduct an academic study of the relationship between canon law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. He systematically examines the United Nations’ body of regulations and the provisions of canon law (CIC), highlighting both points of convergence and gaps.
He notes that national regulations on child protection, which implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, have been incorporated into the CIC via international staff members from the Commission for Pontifical Legislation. Consequently, certain rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child can also be found in Catholic canon law.
The insider’s perspective and the victim’s perspective
This also includes the fact that various forms of child sexual abuse have now been recognised and very clearly defined. As regards the response to cases of abuse, too, a great deal has happened, says Czerner, referring to Pope Francis’s Apostolic Letter ‘Vos estis lux mundi’ (‘You are the light of the world’) from 2019 (updated in 2023). In an interview with Vatican Radio in January 2025, the Mittweida-based academic said: “It deals in great, great detail with canonical measures for dealing with cases of sexual abuse within the Church. I consider this text in particular to be one of the most important texts in the context of combating sexual abuse.” It deals with the procedure, the conduct of the investigation, reporting, and how to handle allegations of abuse. And in this text, Pope Francis has also made it very, very clear that the victim’s perspective must be taken into account, that the victim must be recognised as such.
As early as 2016, the Pope, in his Apostolic Letter ‘Come una madre amorevole’ (“Like a Loving Mother”), the Pope had already closed a further loophole in canon law by regulating the removal of bishops who had neglected their duty of care or even covered up cases of sexual abuse within their dioceses.
However, both examples also highlight the predominantly internal focus of the updated canon law. The perspective of abuse victims is still being overlooked, according to Czerner – a lawyer specialising in ‘law in Social Work’ and not a canon lawyer – speaking to Vatican Radio: It seems to me that a shift in perspective is needed here: we should focus less on protecting the institution and more on the victims’ perspective.
The full interview with Professor Frank Czerner, available to listen to, as well as a written summary, can be found on the German-language page of Vatican Radio via the following link.
In the run-up to and in connection with his research visit to Rome, Frank Czerner has published two works:
Frank Czerner is continuing his research into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and plans further publications on its incorporation into German federal child and youth welfare law, as well as into criminal law and criminal procedure law – the core subjects of the professor’s teaching at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.
Text and image: Helmut Hammer
