There have been a number of attempts since the passing of
the current government’s pro-abortion legislation, The Protection of Life in
Pregnancy Act, to increase access to abortion in Ireland. Socialist TD’s (members
of parliament) Clare Daly and Ruth Coppinger have made several attempts to
introduce private members bills, either to remove the pro life amendment to the
Constitution, or to widen the scope of the government legislation, in order to
to kill unborn babies with fetal abnormalities and/or those conceived in rape.
In the wake of the disasterous result in the same sex
marriage referendum, pro-abortion forces, buoyed up by that result, have
continued to pressure Ireland’s coalition government to remove the pro-life
amendment, Article 40.3.3.
The Irish Government, whilst indicating it was not against
the idea of a referendum on the issue, has refused to do so this year as all
political parties are now gearing up for a general election which must be held
by the middle of next year. Health Minister Leo Varadkar made this clear
recently when he told the Dail that a referendum to remove the 1983 pro-life
amendment from the Constitution would be a matter for the next Dáil.
Apart from political pressure from within the country pressure
is also being placed on the Government by UN Committees despite the fact that
there is no such human right as a right to abortion, and the that International
UN treaties protect the lives of all human beings including the unborn.
The most recent attempt to pressurise Ireland came from the
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
The CESCR in it concluding observations, on the third
periodic report of Ireland to the Committee, E/C.12/IRL/CO/3, said that the
Committee is concerned at what they termed to be ‘Ireland’s highly restrictive
legislation on abortion and strict interpretation thereof’.
The Committee recommended that Ireland,
“take all necessary steps, including a referendum on abortion, to
revise its legislation on abortion, including the Constitution and the
Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, in line with international human
rights standards; adopt guidelines to clarify what constitutes a real
substantive risk to the life of a pregnant woman; publicize information on
crisis pregnancy options through effective channels of communication; and
ensure the accessibility and availability of information on sexual and
reproductive health.”
This Committee has a tendency to treat national laws with
contempt as they issue instructions to countries under review to change their
laws and policies on abortion, regardless of the fact the the Convention on
Economic Social and Cultural Rights never mentions abortion.
Treaty body mandates create a narrow role for treaty bodies such
as the CESCR and those bodies cannot exceed the scope of the authority set
forth in the treaty itself.
Specifically, committee recommendations, such as this, issued by treaty
bodies are not binding on States Parties because such recommendations and comments
are not part of the actual negotiated language of the treaty.
Moreover, treaty bodies do not have the authority to
interpret or reinterpret treaties.
Authoritative interpretations of treaties are reserved to States Parties
collectively. Many diplomats have
privately expressed concern that these treaty bodies have grossly exceeded
their authority in recent years.
The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) sets out
interpretive norms for all treaties. The VCLT in Article 31 says: "A treaty shall be interpreted in good
faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning (emphasis added) to be given to
the terms of the treaty in their context and in light of its object and
purpose." In other words, attention
must be paid to the actual text of the treaty and, as an aid to interpretation,
to its surrounding context.
