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Child safeguarding · Claim record

In its Final Report the Royal Commission recommended that the Jehovah's Witness organisation abandon its application of the two-witness rule in cases involving complaints of child sexual abuse (16.27), revise its policies so that women are involved in investigating and determining such allegations (16.28), and no longer require members to shun those who disassociate for reasons related to being a victim of child sexual abuse (16.29).

Claim ID claim-safeguarding-final-report-recommendationsConcerns 15 December 2017Independent finding
Independent finding · 15 December 2017 Supported

In its Final Report the Royal Commission recommended that the Jehovah's Witness organisation abandon its application of the two-witness rule in cases involving complaints of child sexual abuse (16.27), revise its policies so that women are involved in investigating and determining such allegations (16.28), and no longer require members to shun those who disassociate for reasons related to being a victim of child sexual abuse (16.29). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Final Report, Volume 16 Religious institutions, Book 3, 15 December 2017Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Case Study 54 (Institutional review of the Jehovah's Witnesses), transcript Day 259, 10 March 2017ABC News (Australia), 10 March 2017

The organisation’s position or later explanation: At the March 2017 hearing the organisation said the two-witness rule 'can't be changed or avoided' and that it was 'prohibited by Scripture from altering the application of the two-witness rule' ( pp. 26491, 26525). No later public statement accepting 16.27-16.29 was located.

Show the evidence (3 sources)
Official public record Supported

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Final Report, Volume 16 Religious institutions, Book 3, “Chapter 15 Jehovah's Witnesses; Recommendations 16.27-16.29”

15 December 2017 · Recommendations 16.27, 16.28, 16.29 · Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse · Commonwealth of Australia

“abandon its application of the two witness rule in cases involving complaints of child sexual abuse”

Recommendation 16.27 as summarised in the search index of the official site and in secondary sources; 16.28 asks the organisation to revise its policies so that women are involved in processes for investigating and determining allegations of child sexual abuse; 16.29 asks it to no longer require members to shun those who disassociate where the reason relates to their being a victim of child sexual abuse. The Jehovah's Witnesses chapter is chapter 15 of Book 3 (confirmed from the Volume 16 table of contents in Book 2, which was opened).

Official source Archived or alternative copy Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Neither the official nor the royalcommission.gov.au copy of Book 3 could be downloaded from this environment (both hosts time out / TLS fails; a Python download was left running). The recommendation wording is consistent across the official site's search snippet, the ABC's 2017 reporting, the Case Study 54 transcript (which describes the recommendations as they stood in the Case Study 29 report) and multiple secondary summaries, and the claims it supports are labelled accordingly.

Corroborated by. src-arc-2016-1000-cs29-report, src-arc-2017-0310-cs54-day259-transcript, src-abc-2017-0310-jw-defend-treatment

Notes. Volume 16 Book 2 (Catholic Church) was downloaded from tjhcouncil.org.au and its contents page confirms Book 3 contains '15 Jehovah's Witnesses'. Final Report presented 15 December 2017.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-arc-2017-1215-final-report-vol16-bk3

Official public record Supported

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Case Study 54 (Institutional review of the Jehovah's Witnesses), transcript Day 259, “Evidence of Terrence O'Brien and Rodney Spinks, 10 March 2017”

10 March 2017 · pp.26486-26574 · pp. 26491-26493, 26500, 26505, 26513, 26524-26525, 26530, 26543 · Transcript produced by DTI · Commonwealth of Australia

“THE CHAIR: Yes. But if there are not two witnesses, you don't accept it, do you? MR O'BRIEN: Because scripturally we're not able to.”

P. 26543:13-16. At p. 26525:17-21 Mr O'Brien confirmed the organisation's response to the recommendation to modify the two-witness rule: 'the two-witness rule is required by the scriptures and can't be changed or avoided ... That's correct. That's our stand.' Counsel Assisting's opening (pp. 26492-26493) said that of 17 allegations received since Case Study 29 the organisation had reported 15 to the authorities, the two exceptions being adult survivors who elected not to report. At p. 26513 Mr O'Brien described the Branch Office practice of instructing elders that where there is a risk to a child 'the matter is to be reported to the police'.

Official source Scan of original Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Official transcript not opened (host unreachable); a complete copy was opened and the central quotation matches the ABC's contemporaneous report. Upgrade to 'verified' once the official PDF is opened.

Scan provenance. Copy of the DTI transcript (89 pp.) hosted by saysorry.org, a survivor-advocacy (discovery-tier) site; used because the official host was unreachable. Key quotation independently reported by ABC News on the day.

Corroborated by. src-abc-2017-0310-jw-defend-treatment

Notes. Case Study 54 was the follow-up 'institutional review' hearing held on Friday 10 March 2017. The Governing Body did not give evidence at this hearing.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-arc-2017-0310-cs54-day259-transcript

Reputable reporting Verified

ABC News (Australia), “Uniting Church apologises to victims of sexual abuse, Jehovah's Witnesses defend treatment”

10 March 2017 · Nicole Chettle and Michelle Brown · Australian Broadcasting Corporation

“Because scripturally we're not able to.”

Terrence O'Brien's answer, as reported, when Justice McClellan pressed him on the two-witness rule at the 10 March 2017 hearing. The report also records that of 17 allegations since 2015, 15 were reported to police, and that the US-based hierarchy declined to appear.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Article opened; quotation confirmed.

Corroborated by. src-arc-2017-0310-cs54-day259-transcript

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-abc-2017-0310-jw-defend-treatment

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-safeguarding-final-report-recommendations/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.