Date: January 3, 2025
GBC Meeting report
The GBC and ISKCON leadership have prioritized improving child protection efforts, dedicating multiple meetings to this issue over the past year. Significant progress has been made in strengthening child protection policies, ensuring compliance with both ecclesiastical responsibilities and legal obligations. While the core policy remains unchanged, the GBC has introduced an enhanced approach to improve its implementation across ISKCON’s global network.
Key aspects of this approach include prioritizing child protection as a fundamental value, empowering leadership teams with resources and accountability, separating prevention from case-related matters, and ensuring sustainable, locally funded initiatives. A blended top-down and bottom-up approach will help raise awareness, reduce risks, and foster a culture of safety.
New Oversight Structure
To oversee this new strategy, the GBC has established the Child Protection Oversight Committee (CPOC), a supervisory body ensuring adherence to policies while remaining independent of case adjudications. Governance functions of the current ICPO will transition to the CPOC, while implementation will be led by Regional Governing Bodies (RGBs). ISKCON’s Justice Minister will serve as the transitional CPO Director for 3 to 6 months starting March 1, 2025. The GBC will monitor progress and conduct formal reviews every six months and annually thereafter.
Please download the full text of the GBC meeting report here .