Abortion is not a human right

Human rights can cover a lot of virtues and some vices too. So we must be cautious before giving credence even to persons who have an apparently irreproachable façade. Sweden, a country to which I was accredited as ambassador, has legislation which is very favourable to abortion.

In his report 'EU citizens' initiative to force abortion' (The Sunday Times, July 19), Ivan Camilleri writes that Swedish MEP Brigitta Ohlsson has mounted an Internet campaign "in a bid to exert pressure on the EU to force countries like Malta to introduce the right of abortion."

This is not the only source of pressure coming from Sweden. The cause of human rights is being used, repeatedly and systematically, to cover abortion by no less a figure than the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights. He is Thomas Hammarberg, a Swede, who used to be head of the Stockholm-based Olof Palme Centre, affiliated to the Social Democratic Party.

Mr Hammarberg's pro-abortion agenda emerges from his reports on Ireland, Poland and San Marino which can be accessed on the Council of Europe's website (www.coe.int). His advocacy of abortion is all the more pernicious as it is low-key and seemingly discreet.

Mr Hammarberg's favourite tactic is to refer with approval to anonymous and unidentified NGOs that support abortion, while ignoring those that oppose it. He does not hold back from using double standards: he has enthusiastically quoted the Vatican and Catholic organisations when criticising the Italian government's measures against illegal immigration.

Human rights are, of course, a controversial and highly charged subject. But one question has to be seriously addressed: should the views on human rights of the Swedish left be imposed, even surreptitiously, on countries having completely different historical and cultural backgrounds, such as Ireland, Poland, San Marino, Italy or, indeed, Malta?

Not everything carrying the label 'human rights', 'Council of Europe' or 'European Parliament' can be endorsed without critical examination.

Noel Buttigieg Scicluna, Former Maltese Ambassador to the Council of Europe and ambassador in Vienna, Budapest and Copenhagen, St Julian's