Andorra: Acquittal of activist who raised concerns about total abortion ban at a UN meeting “an important victory”

Amnesty International
Jan 17, 2024

The acquittal of abortion rights activist, Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, on defamation charges is an important victory but she should never have been charged in the first place, said Amnesty International following a court decision today.

In a joint public statement with the Centre for Reproductive Rights, Women’s Link Worldwide and Front Line Defenders the organisations welcome today’s decision acquitting Vanessa Mendoza Cortés and remind the authorities that she should face no further intimidation or reprisals for carrying out her important and legitimate human rights work.

Continued:https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/andorra-acquittal-of-activist-who-raised-concerns-about-total-abortion-ban-at-a-un-meeting-an-important-victory/

US abortion ban: Experts urge country to join women’s rights convention

By World Nation News Desk
Updated 26/10/2022

The Committee of Experts on Women’s Rights highlighted this Friday that The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that is not a party to the convention. It protects the fundamental guarantees of women, including sexual and reproductive health.

“Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Urge the United States to Join To the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in order to respect, protect, fulfill and promote the human rights of women and girls,” the expert group said in a statement.

Continued: https://worldnationnews.com/us-abortion-ban-experts-urge-country-to-join-womens-rights-convention/

26.10.2022

CEDAW

CEDAW Committee

Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Committee of Experts on Women's Rights

Michelle Bachelet

UK government to fund abortion services in Northern Ireland

Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is commissioning state-funded abortion services across Northern Ireland, after the region fails to provide support for women

October 25, 2022

The U.K. parliament decriminalised abortion in Northern Ireland in 2019, and now in 2022, they have begun funding these procedures for women and girls.

This move demonstrates how the Democratic Unionists have lost a key political standpoint topic in local government, where the support for abortion rights defies many of the Protestant evangelical beliefs of Northern Ireland, which formerly kept abortion illegal.

Continued: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/abortion-nothern-ireland-uk-government-law/146465/

25.10.2022

commissioning abortion services

Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Northern Ireland’s women won abortion rights but its politicians won’t accept that

After Stormont voted to restrict abortion rights, Westminster is intervening to secure the services women are legally entitled to

Susan McKay
20 Mar 2021

Northern Ireland is no country for young women. Out of 87 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) at Stormont last week, just 12 voted to allow women the right to choose abortion in line with international human rights standards. These are built into a law smuggled into NI while the institutions in Belfast were collapsed in acrimony in 2019, following an inspiring collective effort by local feminists and the British Labour MP Stella Creasy. Jubilant, proud, relieved and tearful, women stood at Stormont with banners that said, simply, “Decriminalised”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/20/northern-ireland-women-abortion-rights-stormont-westminster

Northern Ireland’s new abortion guidelines are welcome but should have gone further

Northern Ireland’s new abortion guidelines are welcome but should have gone further

Posted: Fri, 27 Mar 2020
by Dr Antony Lempert

As the government publishes a framework for the extension of abortion rights in NI, Dr Antony Lempert welcomes politicians' belated willingness to defend women's right to choose but laments several missed opportunities.

On 23 February 2018 the UN committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) issued a damning verdict on the state of abortion in Northern Ireland. It concluded that women were subject to violence by virtue of the fact that nearly every woman or child who became pregnant had to carry the pregnancy to term. This was the case even where there was evidence that the foetus would not be viable and even in cases of incest or rape.

Continued: https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2020/03/northern-irelands-new-abortion-guidelines-are-welcome-but-should-have-gone-further