In November 2004 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in official recommendations to Malta, released November 26 said: "The Committee urges the State party to review its legislation on abortion and consider exceptions to the general prohibition of abortion for cases of therapeutic abortions and when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest."

This was the trigger that made Gift of Life go public. We must make no mistake that these "official recommendations" were a subtle form of pressure from the UN on what they probably consider a rogue state, at least, on the matter of abortion.

There are forces which will jump at the opportunity to quote UN documents that are not enforceable or legally binding on member states. They do this to add pressure on governments to introduce highly emotive and controversial issues such as abortion, and at times, they have managed because of what are only the perceived, and not the actual obligations of the member state.

We wish to reproduce extracts from a letter sent to us by C-Fam through their weekly newsletter, The Friday Fax. The reader will find in this letter a recent example on how UN documents, which are silent on abortion, are still being used to force governments to change their laws on abortion.

Last year's controversial judgment of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, legalising abortion in cases of forced pregnancy, foetal malformation and endangerment of the life of the mother, repeatedly cites pro-abortion rights misinterpretations of international law.

The court's decision, issued on May 10, 2006, was widely celebrated by radical non-governmental organisations (NGOs) throughout the world. Monica Roa, the abortion-rights lawyer who brought the case before the court, worked at the radical NGO Women's Link Worldwide at the time of the judgment, and she had been employed at the Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) from 2000 to 2002.

CRR is the most prominent America-based NGO to advocate abortion as a right protected by international law which overrides all national laws around the world. Because of these circumstances, many observers believed that the court's judgment had probably endorsed this pro-abortion rights view of international law.

Analysis of the court's 650-page judgment, recently obtained by The Friday Fax, supports this belief. The court's judgment repeatedly cites international treaties, UN conference outcome documents and other international documents that are routinely misread by the radical NGOs as protecting abortion rights.

The Attorney General's opinion states that Colombia is bound by the recommendations of UN compliance committees. He wrote specifically that Colombia is bound by "the recommendations made by the international authorities in charge of overseeing compliance by" Colombia with the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)."

The CEDAW committee, which the Attorney General is referring to, has repeatedly ordered nations that have ratified CEDAW to either eliminate or weaken their laws against abortion even though the CEDAW treaty is silent on abortion and silent even on "reproductive health", the phrase stealthily used to promote abortion.

The Attorney General also cites opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, all of which advise nations to move towards legalised abortion even though these treaties are also silent on abortion.

The Attorney General goes on to say that making new Colombian human rights from the opinions of UN compliance committees is part of "the highest interpreting authority" of the court.

Gift of Life is aware that some in Malta have used similar arguments with regard to perceived obligations that Malta has towards the UN and the EU on the matter of abortion. They do this to try and pressurise our country into doubt and misinformed debate.

We should all be grateful that our government has been wise enough not to sign the CEDAW treaty.

In this way Maltese women and their babies are better protected from the misuse of such treaties, leaving our island open to the attack of misinformation.

Mr Vincenti is spokesman for Gift of Lift

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