News and primary-source research on the Watchtower organization
Named in July 2020 among institutions refusing to join the National Redress Scheme, the organization agreed in March 2021 to comply after the government moved to strip holdout charities of their tax status.
Geoffrey Jackson, a member of the Governing Body that runs Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, gave sworn evidence to Australia's Royal Commission — on the group's claim to speak for God, the two-witness rule, and whether women could judge abuse cases.
In 2015 a national inquiry examined how the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in Australia responded to child sexual abuse. Its records showed 1,006 alleged perpetrators since 1950 — none reported by the organization to police.
In July 2015 an Australian Royal Commission opened public hearings into the Jehovah's Witnesses — and revealed that the organization's own files documented 1,006 alleged abusers since 1950, not one reported by the church to police.