Today December 10th the United Nations celebrates Human
Rights Day.
The UN, instead of clapping itself on the back at its own
perceived success in promoting human rights, should hang its head in shame at
its abysmal failure to protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of our community, unborn
babies.
The UN, its agencies and organs appear to be more influenced
by ideology than in upholding truth and justice even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenents
enacted under it are crystal clear.
It is now fifty years since the UN adopted the International
Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which along with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights constitute the International Bill of Rights that recognize 'the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world'. In addition to the foregoing the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) in its preamble tells us that 'Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of
the Rights of the Child, "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".'
Sound science recognizes that human embryos, from the moment of
fertilisation, are new living human beings. To use the words of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights we are all members of the 'human family'. From
the moment of fertilisation we all share a common humanity. Human embryos
are equal members of the species homo sapiens and each stage of development is
equal in value to every other stage.
There is a connection between the self-interest of certain
communities and the line to be drawn between recognition of persons and
non-persons. That self-interest may be
driven by eugenic, economic, social or political factors such that those a
society wishes to exclude are deemed to be non-persons. History is replete with examples of this
phenomenon.
However cleverly the arguments are presented, the taking of a
human life, the killing of a human being is a heinous crime, it is called murder.
The killing of the most vulnerable human beings, unborn babies, is the most
heinous of crimes.
We call on the Secretary General and the United Nations
General Assembly to redress this blatant injustice, to uphold its own declared
values and to immediately reject the wholesale killing of the unborn.
Denying embryonic and foetal human beings their fundamental
and inherent right to live, either by design or by omission, diminishes the whole of humanity, hinders the
search for justice and truth and brings the UN, its organs and agencies, into disrepute.
