We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Updated 2.55 pm
THE UN HAS found that Ireland is obliged to provide compensation to a woman because she was forced to travel abroad to have an abortion.
A committee of experts from the UN’s Human Rights Commission has found that Ireland’s laws on abortion has had a “chilling effect” on healthcare and contributed to “negative experiences” Amanda Mellet went through.
They say she was subjected to “discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as a result of Ireland’s legal prohibition of abortion”.
The decision comes following the 2011 case when Mellet was 21 weeks pregnant and was was told her foetus had congenital defects meaning it would die in the womb or shortly after birth. The committee said that this meant she had two choices:
between continuing her non-viable pregnancy or travelling to another country while carrying a dying foetus, at personal expense and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered.
In this specific case, Mellet chose to travel to the UK to have a termination, staying there for only 12 hours because that was all she could afford. In that time she was not given any option regarding the foetus’s remains.
The committee outlines that they were “unexpectedly delivered to her three weeks later by courier”. She has spoke previously about the “heartbreaking” loss she felt losing the child she named Aoife.
The committee outlined how Ireland’s laws impacted on her treatment, more so because of her financial means:
In Ireland, she was denied the bereavement counselling and medical care available to women who miscarry. Such differential treatment, the Committee noted, failed to take into account her medical needs and socio-economic circumstances and constituted discrimination.
Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if (she) had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted.
The committee notes that Ireland is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and is therefore obliged to
provide [Amanda Mellett] with an effective remedy, including adequate compensation and psychological treatment she may need, the Committee said. Ireland is also obliged to prevent similar violations from occurring.
“To this end, the State party should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary its Constitution, to ensure compliance with the Covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland,” the committee said.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Amanda Mellet said she was “profoundly grateful” to the UN for clearly recognising that her human rights were violated.
“The decision not only vindicates my rights, it also serves to uphold the rights of many other women in Ireland who have faced and continue to face human rights violations under the current legal regime.”
She noted that to redress the violations, the Irish government has to ensure other women do not live through the same experiences but added that “this cannot happen until Article 40.3.3 is repealed”.
Speaking about her own personal trauma, she said she hopes with the decision in hand that she can now “finally leave behind these painful memories”.
“I hope the day will soon come when women in Ireland will be able to access the health services they need in our own country, where we can be with our loved ones, with our own medical team, and where we have our own familiar bed to go home and cry in.
“Subjecting women to so much additional pain and trauma simply must not continue.”
Response
The State now has 180 days to respond to the committee detailing what steps it intends to take to make sure it is compliant under international law.
Speaking this afternoon following the ruling, Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O’Gorman said that Ireland’s failure to adhere to UN’s Human Rights Commission would mean that it is undermining a system of international law it was part of creating.
The question for Ireland now is if it is going to continue to assert its traditional respect for international human rights law or is it going to be one of those rogues states that disregards the rule of international law and simply doesn’t not accept the ruling of this committee.
In its response to the committee as part of the case, Ireland had argued that the issue was part of a “profound moral question” that it required a “nuanced and proportionate approach”.
The government has promised a public convention on a number of issues including abortion to examine whether it will propose any legislative changes in the area.
Ailbhe Smyth of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment says that what is needed is a referendum.
“Of course there are a variety of opinions and points of view on this issue and the Taoiseach himself has said that it is ultimately the people who make the decisions, so he now needs to follow his own views and put it to the people,” she said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I had one and wanted to start the fire myself….
That would put Zafira God into ya!
Some cigarette lighter there…
It amazes me that a story like this makes headlines but the fact that the 2nd biggest fishing trawler the FV Margiris is off the Coast of Donegal at the minute HOVERING up fish, its nets are so big they can hold 13 Jumbo jets, this same ship was banned from Australia coasts,…but hay we shouldn’t complain ….we do get a 4% fish quota for OUR waters !!!!!! So next time your scoffing down a cancer laden horse burger whilst sitting in your Zafria ….ask yourself, why is it that even though were an island surrounded by water , we have very little fish in out diet ?
Currently there are large shoals of Bluefin Tuna of the west coast, but its illegal for us to catch them, as we don’t have any quota for them.
Can i see your copy of Swank, Armin?
This is where it is at the moment :http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:353383/zoom:10
And to quote ABC news:
Nathaniel Pelle, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner says ‘vessels like the FV Margiris and its bloated fleet of heavily subsidised European trawlers have fished their own waters to near collapse and they’ve brought fisheries to their knees everywhere they’ve been since’.
Greenpeace points out that the Margiris ‘is linked to the European Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association (PFA), an EU taxpayer-subsidized fleet with a history of leaving collapsed fisheries and out-of-work fishermen in its wake’.
“The South Pacific jack mackerel fishery, a favourite of the Margiris and the PFA, made headlines this year when fish populations plummeted by ninety percent.
“Off West Africa almost all the PFA’s target species are now fully exploited or overexploited, prompting the Senegalese government to expel all PFA vessels from their waters.”
TheBrain…never heard of it…but I see it now n/w of Donegal with a Dutch vessel..30 years old,almost 10k gross tonnage,Lithuanian flag,in and out of Dutch ports.tell us more….
Since joining the EU in ’73 to 2010 Ireland has received €72 billion in funds and we have contributed about €31 Billion so we got €41 billion, not bad until you look at the fisheries, 1975-210 Our fisheries were worth €201 Billion commercially, we took €17 Billion of that ….which left the EU with a nice €140 billion worth of our fish ………..not a bad days work……sure what could we have done with 100 billion euro???
TheBrain…any suggestions?
Armin…we do have a minister for all this,don’t we??we used to have..I know Coveney looks after the Med ferries…….
Zafira, If the emissions don’t get ya, the Fire will.
They don’t make em like they used to.
Mine is 16 years old. I’m going to demand a full refund!!
Never cut off a guy in a vest driving an MPV. He’s got nothing to lose.
A few articles down theres a sponsored article for opel corsas…no thanks!
Zafire sale?
New spec in opels Bluetooth,sat nav,fire extinguisher. ……
Definitely a hot topic.
Burning is the best thing to do to these and all such peoplewagons
So how are family’s supposed to get around?
As the Kings of Leon once sang – whoa ooh, your Zafiras on fire…..
No they didn’t. They never even sang anything that sounds remotely like that! Why would you lie like that??
Yeah. Everyone knows it was Johnny Cash sang that.
Wasn’t he the guy who sang the Macarena?
no, he sang cotton eye joe
Ah right. I thought that was Andrea Bocelli
and i just realised the ‘eye’ connection there… unintentional… wouldn’t have gone there, to be honest
I love how the sponsored link on the app today is for opel
It was first in the queue for the Passage West to Cobh ferry and was waiting on the slipway for the ferry to arrive, good job that it did not go on fire on the ferry boat.
Looks like the firemen are going to push it down the slip into the water!
Pun
have your say