Home / Resources / Complaint made to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers concerning human rights violations in connection with a prominent trial at the Vatican City State

Complaint made to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers concerning human rights violations in connection with a prominent trial at the Vatican City State

20/06/2024

As reported by the Associated Press and in a range of publications, Rodney Dixon KC, assisted by Sebastian Bates, has been instructed by Mr Raffaele Mincione in relation to a complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in connection with first-instance criminal proceedings against Mr Mincione in the Tribunal of the Vatican City State. Those proceedings have been popularly dubbed ‘the Vatican’s trial of the century’.

The complaint invokes the right not to be arbitrarily detained, the right to privacy and the secrecy of personal communications, and the right to a fair trial in customary international human rights law.

As the complaint points out, a significant focus of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is the availability of an independent and impartial judiciary, which is a vital safeguard against arbitrariness in the context of detention. Furthermore, the oversight of a court that is independent and impartial is a critical guarantee against the abuse of authority to wire-tap and invade the privacy and secrecy of personal communications of individuals. Moreover, it is obvious that a fair trial cannot happen unless it takes place before an independent and impartial court.

The complaint sets out how, in the absence of an independent and impartial judiciary in the Vatican City State, Mr Mincione was left unsafeguarded against arbitrariness in the context of detention; subjected to surveillance without any adequate and effective guarantee against abuse; and refused a fair trial.

The complaint particularly draws the Special Rapporteur’s attention to the failure by the Tribunal to give full reasons for its verdict of 16 December 2023.

Given that the Special Rapporteur’s mandate extends to ensuring that prosecutors and other lawyers are in a position to, and in fact do, carry out their professional tasks appropriately, the complaint also highlights evidence that Mr Mincione’s lawyers were the victims of interference, if not intimidation, and this may have been at the instigation of prosecutors in the Vatican City State or another organ of the Holy See as well as indications that these prosecutors approached the proceedings in a partial manner.

Mr Mincione’s complaint was submitted to the Special Rapporteur on 14 June 2024. It is being pursued alongside Mr Mincione’s appeal against conviction.

The reporting by the Associated Press is available here; an article in the Telegraph is available here; the Mirror’s coverage is available here.

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