Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
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UN treaty body a threat to human rights

Belfast, 31 July 2008 - Pro-life campaigners in Northern Ireland have attacked a report issued by a United Nations committee calling for the liberalisation of abortion law in Northern Ireland and warned that the committee was a threat to genuine human rights.

Betty Gibson, chairwoman of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in Northern Ireland, accused the UN committee on Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of being more interested in promoting abortion than actually helping women.

"Repeated calls by the CEDAW committee to liberalise abortion in every country which has ratified the treaty, only damages the already poor human rights record of the UN. Nowhere in the treaty is abortion even mentioned. The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, however, recognises that 'the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth,'" said Mrs Gibson.

"The law in Northern Ireland upholds the internationally recognised human rights by providing legal protection for children before birth. The CEDAW committee has no legitimate interest in abortion law and has no authority to demand that we end the legal protection of unborn children here. In doing so, CEDAW threatens genuine human rights."

Betty Gibson said that the CEDAW committee had received a submission critical of the Province's abortion laws from the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association, a pro-abortion group. CEDAW's position, she said, simply reflected the FPA's frustration at the lack of popular support within Northern Ireland for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act.

"This latest report by the CEDAW committee can leave no one in any doubt that the abortion lobby is determined to force the people of Northern Ireland to accept the legalisation of abortion on demand. It is vitally important that everyone opposed to the extension of the Abortion Act writes to Gordon Brown urging him to listen to the will of the Northern Ireland Assembly and asking him to prevent pro-abortionists in his party from imposing the Abortion Act on us," said Mrs Gibson.

SPUC is encouraging all those against the extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland to make their opposition public by wearing the "Little Feet" badge, an internationally recognised symbol of solidarity with unborn children. A free badge can be obtained from the Society's Belfast office. The office can be called on (028) 9077 8018 and emailed as belfast@spuc.org.uk.