European Life Network is pleased to report that the Draft report of the working group on Ireland's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which was issued yesterday October 10th at the United Nations offices in Geneva, shows that Ireland has once again stood firm in its protection of unborn life and has rejected the calls made by six countries for the introduction of abortion.
We reported last Friday on Ireland's UPR and that Ireland’s, pro-life laws were questioned by delegates from the following countries. Holland, Slovenia, Norway, Spain, Denmark and the UK called on Ireland to legislate for abortion.
The draft report showed that there were a large number of recommendations apart from abortion and included, racial discrimination, gender equality, the travelling community, poor sanitation and over-crowding in prisons, a children's rights referendum, torture prevention and gender equality. In all the report outlined 126 recommendations, 62 of which the Irish Government accepted with a commitment that it would "study carefully" a further 49 before the next Human Rights Council session in March 2012.
In all 15 recommendations were rejected, six of which related to abortion.
The rejected recommendations included a call from the United Kingdom to introduce legislation to implement the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the A, B and C v Ireland case and a request from Slovenia to allow abortion "at least when pregnancy poses a risk to the health of the pregnant woman." Recommendations on abortion from Norway, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands were also rejected. Denmark's recommendations were the most radical and called for abortion on demand.
