Dear Editor, The Amnesty International report, which calls for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution (which recognises the equal right to life of mother and baby) and for the decriminalisation of abortion, is further proof that the organisation is no longer a human rights defender.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
Abortion is a violation of human rights because it involves the direct and deliberate taking of an innocent human life. The right to life is the most basic and important human right, without it all other rights are meaningless.
Amnesty International would better serve humanity in general, and women’s rights in particular, if they worked to ensure that the right to life of all human beings, both born and unborn, is upheld under national and international law.
Yours etc.,
Mary O’Byrne,
Galway for Life,
Ozanam House,
St Augustine Street,
Galway.