European Court of Human Rights dismisses lawsuit by victims of Catholic abuse against the Vatican

(CNN) – The Vatican cannot be sued in European courts because it is a sovereign state, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday, dismissing a lawsuit by survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy.

It was the first ECHR case to deal with the immunity of the Holy See, the court said.

A group of 24 Belgian, French and Dutch abuse survivors tried to sue the Holy See and Catholic Church leaders in Belgian courts starting in 2011, but that country’s courts ruled they had no jurisdiction over the Vatican, he said. on Tuesday the European Court of Human Rights explaining its ruling.

Survivors of abuse made their way through the Belgian court system before taking their claim to European court in 2017, the ECHR said.

On Tuesday, the ECHR ruled 6-1 that the Vatican was a sovereign state that could not be sued, and that there was nothing “unreasonable or arbitrary” about the adoption of that position by the Belgian courts.