To listen to some abortion advocates over the past few
days, you would be forgiven for thinking that we were dealing with a court with
full jurisdiction and authority over Ireland. This is not the case. The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) is simply
that – a Committee. It does not have the
right to impose its views on Ireland.
The Committee came to its conclusion based on its
interpretation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), and specifically Article 7. That
provides that “no-one shall be subjected
to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. This is the headline which is receiving
blanket coverage in the Irish media and is being used by abortion advocates to
push the case for a referendum to remove the 8th Amendment which
guarantees that unborn babies have an equal right to life under Irish law.
There are two important points to be borne in mind.
The first is that the HRC simply doesn’t have credibility
to discuss “torture” in the abortion issue. This is because of how it
constantly ignores other instances that would stand out as examples of extreme
torture, caused by the abortion procedure.
For example, the case of babies who survive abortions when they’re not
meant to. Melissa Ohden spoke about this
sick phenomenon in Dublin last weekend and the situation where, (in her words),
“babies born alive after botched abortions are abandoned as they gasp for
breath and struggle to stay alive.”
This happened to 66 babies in one year alone according to official
records in England and Wales. It
happened to over 400 babies in Canada over a 10 year period. This type of inhumane treatment of newborn
babies amounts to “torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” by
anyone’s reckoning – except maybe the HRC.
They have certainly never publicly challenged this practice. They have never criticised the countries that
have allowed this horrific abuse to take place.
They have simply stayed silent.
Silent too has been Amnesty International, who were once a
watchdog for all those who threatened the rights of human beings. Instead, they have fallen in line with a
twisted notion of “human rights” which allows international bodies to push for
laws that will allow lives to be ended.
This brings us to the second reason why everything this
Committee says should be considered as a partisan comment. They don’t look at the bigger picture. There is no mention in their report of any
rights that unborn babies might have. As
far as the HRC is concerned, the baby’s rights count for nothing. This is despite the fact that Article 6.1 of
the ICCPR states that “Every human being
has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his
life.”
This is a very strong statement of the right to life of
“every human being”, and one that doesn’t distinguish between “born” and
“unborn” human beings. Article 6.5
provides for the death penalty to be imposed on some individuals but notes that
it is not to be carried out on pregnant women. Regardless of how you feel about
the death penalty (and I oppose it), anyone reading this section of the ICCPR
will see that its authors made a distinction between pregnant women, and
non-pregnant women. They recognised that
there was another human being involved – an unborn baby who could not have
taken part in any crime and who should not have their life ended via the death
penalty.
The Preamble to the ICCPR talks about how “the recognition
of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members
of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the
world.”
Yesterday’s comments prove just how far the HRC have
drifted from genuine human rights. Their
viewpoint is so narrow that they have completely ignored the Article in the
ICCPR which highlights the most basic human right, the right to life. The
unborn baby doesn’t even get a look in.
His or her rights are completely ignored. There is no attempt to
acknowledge the fact that a pregnant woman and her baby are two individuals who
are each entitled to rights under the law.
The Irish Constitution doesn’t have this kind of narrow
focus. Thanks to the 8th
Amendment, it protects the lives of all human beings in Ireland. In that sense,
it is far more in line with the true intention of the ICCPR and what should be
the goal of international human rights protection the world over – protecting
the lives of every human being, born and unborn. It’s a sad state of affairs
when this kind of positive protection is criticised by a Committee claiming to
speak out for human rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment