Some issues of concern, which arose during Ireland’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Our initial review of Ireland’s UPR concentrated on the issue of abortion, however there are a number of additional issues in the draft report, which are a cause for concern.

The draft report outlined 126 recommendations in total, 62 of which were accepted by the Irish Government. The Government also made a commitment that it would "study carefully" a further 49 recommendations before the next Human Rights Council session in March 2012.

One of the issues recommended by Mexico and set out in the Irish Government list of accepted recommendations related to making contraceptive information “available and accessible” to “boys, girls and adolescents”.



“Ensure the national availability and accessibility to contraceptive services and methods including through the dissemination of information and education to boys, girls and adolescents taking into account prevention of discrimination based on geographic (sic), status, disability or migrant status”. 



The Government has also agreed to consider the following recommendations made by Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay

The Spanish recommendation  called on the Irish Government to, 

“Deepen the Reform of the law on same-sex marriage and change the concept of traditional family as enshrined in the Constitution”

The fact that the Government are prepared to consider this recommendation it is a cause for grave concern

The Government also agreed to consider Switzerland’s recommendation to “amend Article (sic) 37 of the 1998 Employment Equality Act in order to prevent such discrimination against homosexual and unmarried parents”.

Again this is a cause for concern in that section 37 of the act allows religious institutions, such as schools or hospitals, to hire or to refuse to hire in accordance with their ethos.



The Irish Government also agreed to consider a recommendation by Uruguay to explicitly prohibit “any form of corporal punishment in the family”.

 

 

Fr. Simon O’Byrne, OFM

Fr. Simon O’Byrne, OFM, died earlier this month, Requiescat in Pace. 

Fr. O’Byrne was an unstinting defender of life from conception to natural death, and he is greatly missed.   Known as ‘the teenagers’ priest’, he was a staunch supporter of young people, and in the 1960s he was largely responsible for the successes of the Catholic Youth Crusade which attracted crowds of nearly 20,000 young people to rallies at Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo. Fr. O’Byrne constantly promoted and upheld traditional Catholic values and he was a strong opponent of the permissive and so-called liberal society that was starting to manifest itself in Ireland at that time.    

 

He spoke at Knock in 1979, where he criticised the ‘advocates of the permissive society’ for promoting abortion, euthanasia, divorce, drug-pushing, pornography, etc.  

Fr. O’Byrne was also the author of a number of books and booklets on many aspects of life.  A number of the booklets that he wrote are still available in religious bookshops at very reasonable prices, although one of his books, Fatima in Focus, is described as being ‘an extremely rare publication’, attracting asking prices of £130, and £395, on internet bookselling sites!

Long live priests like Fr. O’Byrne

Dilemmas: Post Abortion counselling

The London Independent newspaper carries a regular feature entitled ‘Dilemmas’.  The dilemmas are presented in such form as to pose questions requesting answers or suggestions from readers of the paper.    It is assumed that the dilemmas are genuine ones.    The following is the text of the most recent problem presented under the name Judith:

‘Ten years ago I had an abortion.  I never thought that I wouldn’t one day get pregnant in the future and now I find that I regret bitterly what I did.

‘At the time I thought I wouldn’t be able to look after a child, and the father was a violent man and the prospect of having to put up with him for the rest of my life, even only as a visiting father, made me scared.  But now I find that I can’t stop myself thinking about “what might have been”.  It’s too late now, at 42, for me to have a child – I’ve had tests and they showed it’s unlikely I would be able to conceive – and anyway I haven’t got a man in my life at the moment.  How can I ever get over the agonising feeling of having made such a big mistake in my past?’

Sadly the advice offered by the columnist, and the letters published in the column, is appalling, it fails to recognise or take into account the reality that Judith expresses in the last sentence of her sharing.

Real help is available from groups such as Rachael's Vineyard and Silent no More 

These organisations reach out to women hurt by abortion, encouraging them to actively seek healing by attending special abortion after-care programs. The programmes encourage women to face the truth that they have terminated a life, the life of a baby and that until they face and accept this reality it will be hard for them to obtain the healing they so urgently need. In due course those women who are ready to do so, are Invited to speak out, to tell the truth about abortion's negative consequences in a similar way to that which has been expressed by Judith in the published dilemma

 

Ireland rejects demands to legalise abortion

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.

 

Death of Dr. Margaret Ogola

‘Unless we recognise that each individual is valuable by virtue of simply being conceived human, we cannot begin to talk about human rights.’

This is just one quotation from a great Kenyan lady, Dr. Margaret Ogola – author, humanitarian and medical doctor – who died on 22 September 2011.  Requiescat in Pace. 

John Smeaton’s blog  carried a lovely tribute to Dr. Ogola on 27 September last.

Every human being, from the moment of conception, has been given his or her own Guardian Angel.    The Feast-day of the Guardian Angels, which occurs in October, was not celebrated this year because it fell on a Sunday but this in no way detracts from the honour and recognition that we owe to our Guardian Angels, and to the Guardian Angels of the countless millions of babies killed by abortion