GENEVA -- Victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests met with U.N. human rights experts Oct. 9 to complain that the Vatican is violating a global treaty that protects children.

Led by the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, the group wants the United Nations to hold the Catholic Church responsible for abuse cases involving priests, according to The Associated Press.

"The Holy See represents special challenges to the United Nations because it tries to have it two ways," said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. "When it wants to be a religion, it's a religion, and when it wants to be a state, it's a state. When the U.N. goes after the Holy See it says it's a religious problem, not a state problem."

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child examines compliance of the 191 countries that signed the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The treaty lays down basic rights for all children to food, shelter, education and protection from abuse and exploitation, according to AP.

"The Vatican had their chance to do something, and they didn't do anything," said Mark Furnish, an attorney who claims he was abused by a priest in Rochester, N.Y., when he was 12.

"We are here to see that they aren't going to spin away the damage," Furnish said. "We also want to send messages to victims that they aren't at fault, that the world is listening now."

There was no immediate comment from the Vatican mission to the United Nations in Geneva, according to AP.

The U.N. committee met the group in an informal capacity and declined comment afterward. The committee's first chance to act comes next year, when Italy is due to present its regular report on how it's upholding the treaty, the AP reported.