Caritas Australia is committed to creating and maintaining safe environments where everyone, especially all children and vulnerable adults are respected, protected, and able to thrive. Grounded in the Catholic Social Teachings and belief in the dignity of every person, we uphold a zero‑tolerance approach to all forms of abuse, exploitation, and harm.

• Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children, vulnerable adults, partners, staff, and volunteers.

• Embedding trauma‑informed and survivor‑centred practice.

• Maintaining strong policies, codes of conduct, and reporting mechanisms aligned with national and Church safeguarding standards.

• Responding to all concerns promptly, transparently, and compassionately.

• Continuously improving safe program design, partner capacity, and organisational safeguarding culture

• Caritas Australia remains dedicated to accountability and ongoing improvement so that the people and communities we serve, especially the most vulnerable, are protected at all times.

Code of Conduct

Our Code of Conduct outlines the expectations of how we behave as individuals, towards each other and those we serve. It applies across the whole organisation, including our Board of Directors, Leadership Team, employees, volunteers, contractors, sub-contractors, partners, and others.

Child Protection Policy

We will not tolerate any form of child abuse or sexual exploitation. At Caritas Australia, we take our duty of care towards children very seriously. We commit to the protection of children from all types of harm, abuse and exploitation when delivering our aid and development activities both overseas and within Australia. Read our Child Protection Policy. 

Preventing Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment Policy

We strive to uphold the Catholic Social Teachings of Dignity of the Human Person, Subsidiarity, Participation and Solidarity in our work and interactions with others. We do not tolerate any kind of sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment (SEAH). We are committed to preventing and addressing SEAH throughout our organisation, with partners, in programs and in all that we do. Read our Preventing Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment Policy.

Feedback and Complaints

We are open to receiving complaints or concerns from anyone, especially those most vulnerable.

Click here for more information on how to make a complaint: Complaints