Tag: European Court of Human Rights

Human Rights, Justice, Law1 Comment

Ireland urged to resist warped court decision on abortion

Michael McFarland Campbell

With the decision reached in the European Court of Human Rights in the A, B, and C case of three Irish women who challenged the constitutional protection for children before birth, there is a grave danger that the Houses of the Oireachtas will feel that they must change the law in Éire. John Smeaton of the Society for Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) says that this would be wrong, and he is urging the people of Ireland to resist pressure from the ECHR to change.

The court rejected the legal arguments of the first two women, but said that the third woman’s right to a private life under article 8 of the European Convention had been violated by a failure of the Irish state to make her rights regarding abortion* accessible to her. The court claimed that the Irish Constitution gives women a right to abortion under the Constitution Continue reading “Ireland urged to resist warped court decision on abortion”

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Without him, I may be in gaol…

Michael McFarland Campbell
Belfast Pride Festival's Party in the Square in Custom House Square, Belfast: one day in the year when the city comes together to celebrate our diversity.

Today I want to pay tribute to a friend of mine, without whom, much of the voluntary work that I do within the LGBT sector in Northern Ireland would have been well nigh impossible. In fact, it is possible, unlikely though it may seem nowadays, that all of us who are gay could still be criminalised within the confines of Northern Ireland. Continue reading “Without him, I may be in gaol…”