Petrelis Files

Vatican's Human Rights Record Omitted from State Dept Report

The recently released 2005 annual human rights report from the U.S. State Department was a giant step forward in terms of documenting and noting antigay abuses around the world, whether the violations occurred in countries we have diplomatic relations with, such as Jamaica and Russia, or nations we don't formally recognize, like Iran.

However, one country, one that has a terrible record on respecting the human rights and civic protections for homosexuals, is missing from the report -- The Vatican.

Actually, none of the State Department's annual reports available on the web provide any information about The Vatican's over all record on human rights, nor its hostility toward gays and lesbians.

Yet, every other tiny state's human rights practices, including Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino, warrant inclusion on the report.

Some people are not cognizant of how the U.S. formally recognizes The Vatican as a state and accordingly appoints an ambassador to the Holy See and maintains an embassy to the city/nation. The U.S. ambassador to Italy and our embassy in Rome are wholly separate from our Vatican ambassador and embassy, thanks to Ronald Reagan establishing diplomatic ties with the Catholic state in 1984.

Click here to read the State Department's general information country page on The Vatican and our history with it.

I have no idea why the State Department has always omitted The Vatican from the annual reports and why it continues to do so now. What we really need is for some intrepid reporter to call the State Department and ask why this is so, then write up a story about this questionable omission from the yearly human rights report.

(Hat tip: KO)