A Way of Life is intended both to inform public opinion and to celebrate Northern Ireland’s defence of pro-life values.
Celebrating Northern Ireland’s pro-life values
Northern Ireland is the safest place in the UK to raise children, and it is also far ahead of the rest of the UK in its protection of the unborn. Our historic opposition to Britain’s Abortion Act 1967, unites people of all religious and political traditions and has led to Northern Ireland having a lower rate of abortion than either Britain or the Republic of Ireland.
This blog aims to present a positive defence of this culture of life against the pro-abortion agenda at work in these islands. It will demonstrate how the inherent sanctity of human life is respected by the vast majority of the people of Northern Ireland and is intended to act as a call to action. It will argue that the protection of unborn human life is something precious and distinctive and worth defending. Whatever our views on other political and religious issues, all sections of Northern Ireland’s population can come together on the fundamental issue of the value of unborn human life.
Informing public opinion
Wherever issues such as abortion are being discussed – in parliament, in the courts, in schools or the letters pages of newspapers – people need hard facts. This blog aims to provide the facts as the starting point for every discussion.
It will affirm that human life begins at conception and will warn against the many and varied attacks on the inherent dignity and worth of human life, both before and after the embryo implants in the womb.
Reflecting Northern Ireland’s pro-life cultural and ethical traditions.
A Way of Life looks forwards to the creation of a society where no one’s fundamental rights are excluded and in particular the right to life.
Twelve years ago today SPUC Northern Ireland published its proposed draft clause for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. It affirmed the rights of individuals, families, women and children, on the basis of long-established international human rights instruments, not least on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. To mark the launch of this blog and to establish its ‘credo’ from the outset I have decided to republish the draft clause.
Draft clause for the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights
1. Rights of individuals
* The recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of peace and justice in Northern Ireland.(1)
* Every member of the human family is entitled to have his or her inherent dignity and inalienable rights protected in law.(2)
* Every human being has the right to life, which shall be protected by law.(3)
* No one is to have his or her rights and freedoms curtailed or infringed by reason of his or her sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, social origin, property, birth or any other status.(4)
* Everyone has the right to have his or her personhood recognised in law.(5)
* Every child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth.(6)
* Every child has the inherent right to life.(7)
* The state shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.(8)
2. Rights of families, women and children
* The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.(9)
* Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.(10)
* The role of women in procreation should not be a basis for discrimination but that the upbringing of children requires a sharing of responsibility between men and women and society as a whole.(11)
* No pregnant woman shall be executed.(12)
* The State shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.(13)
References
(1) Cf Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(2) Cf Universal Declaration of Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 2
(3) Cf Universal Declaration of Human Rights Articles 3 &7, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 6, European Convention on Human Rights Article 2 (1)
(4)Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 2, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 2(1), European Convention on Human Rights Article 14
(5) Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 6, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 16
(6) Convention on the Rights of the Child Preamble, and cf the protection given to the unborn child in the forbidding of the execution of a pregnant woman, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 6(5), International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Article 10
(7) Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 6(1), European Convention on Human Rights Article 2 and cf footnote 3
(8) Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 6(2)
(9) Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 16(3), International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Article 10(1), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 23(1)
(10) Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25(2), International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Article 10(2)(3), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 24, Declaration on the Rights of the Child Preamble & Principles 2, 4, & 8, Convention on the Rights of the Child Preamble & Article 3
(11) Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women Text
(12) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 6(5)
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