Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Nils Muiznieks, following his visit to Malta in November, wrote to the Prime Minister urging Malta to decriminalise abortion and facilitate access to safe and legal abortion on a woman’s request.

I do not intend in this letter to engage in any debate on the legal, medical, ethical, psychological and social aspects of abortion. We all know that abortion is still a highly controversial subject which whips up strong debate every time the topic is brought up and leads to entrenched positions, even in countries where abortion has been available for many years.

The objective of this letter is to pose direct questions to Commissioner Muiz-nieks. As far as I know, nowhere does the European Human Rights Convention establish any automatic right to abortion. It is only through European Court of Human Rights decisions, rulings and recommendations that, in promoting and safeguarding women’s rights, the court recommends going soft on abortions, invoking rights in Article 8 of the same convention as justification.

Article 2 of the convention speaks specifically of the right to life, referring to it as the “most basic human right of all”. It is true that the convention does not clarify what “life” is, or when it begins or ends. It is also true that at some stage the European Court pronounced that it was “neither desirable, nor even possible... to answer in the abstract the question whether the unborn child is a person for the purpose of Article 2 of the convention”.

Various judgements in different national courts of Member States of the Council of Europe, however, subsequently came out with their own interpretations of Article 2 of the convention, with many contending that Article 2 also covers the right to life of the unborn child.

Against this background, does Muiznieks consider the right to abortion a human right? Yes or no?

From where does Muiznieks get the power and the mandate, as Commissioner for Human Rights, to promote the rights of certain “humans”, while denouncing the rights of the other “humans”, who are still in utero?

Where does he draw the line?

Muiznieks would like us to go the way of the so-called “progressive” States that allow abortion up to the 10th or 12th week of gestation, not to mention those where it is also allowed up to the 18th or even the 24th week.

Who gave the power to Muiznieks to recommend the killing of a new life, whatever the reason or so-called ‘justification’?

Is Muiznieks conscious of the fact that there is universal agreement that life begins at fertilisation, and that by the fifth week of gestation, the heart of the foetus begins to beat?

Does he know that during the sixth and seventh weeks the legs, the arms and ears take shape, and the eyes form?

Does he realise that during the eighth and ninth week of development, the foetus develops the skeleton further, develops the liver and the kidneys, and it starts moving, while during the 10th week the foetus further develops the limbs and other organs, and most importantly the brain?

At this level of development, does Muiznieks consider this foetus to be “human” or not?

How can Muiznieks, as Human Rights Commissioner, advise us, or shall I say push us, to disregard completely the rights belonging to this nascent life in utero, as if it were not human, to satisfy the “human” right of another person. It will be a very short step to the next stage of “discarding” disabled foetuses to satisfy the right of women who are pro-choice.

Who gave the power to Muiznieks to recommend the killing of a new life, whatever the reason or so-called “justification”?

Where does Muiznieks stand on the rights of the unborn child?

In my opinion Muiznieks is treading on very slippery ground when he goes around promoting the right to abortion as a “human right” when he knows full well that the Council of Europe never ever agreed that this is so.

It is one thing being educated and informed about all aspects of sexual and reproductive health, which is one’s right, and with which we all agree wholeheartedly, but promoting abortion as a reproductive right, simply does not follow any human rights logic.

George Vella is a retired medical practitioner and former Minister for Foreign Affairs.

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