The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) recently lodged a submission to the Council of Europe (CoE) which addresses the Irish government’s delay in implementing the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in A, B and C v Ireland. Readers may recall in a previous bulletin issue that this was the case where the Strasbourg Court held that Ireland had failed to properly implement the constitutional right to abortion where a woman's life is at risk.
Bulletin readers will remember here that an expert group was formed in January 2012 which was given six months to present the Irish government with options on how to implement the ECtHR's ruling. This report is now overdue. The ICCL submission seeks to inform the CoE of political and religious pressure, which the ICCL believe is placed on the Irish government, in its attempts to implement the judgment.
The submission attached particular weight to comments made by Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, who was reported as saying that the abortion issue “should not be a priority for this Government” and that her “preference would be just not to deal with this issue right now”. Ms Creighton said the issue would prove “hugely divisive” both within government and within political parties. Click here to read the Irish Times article.
The ICCL is calling upon the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to remind the Government that Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights are legally-binding and must be implemented in a speedy and effective way. Click here to read an ICCL press release on the matter.