You are here
Northern Ireland
Press release on the report published on 23 February by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report argues that the UK violates the rights of women in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion. It shows how thousands of women and girls in Northern Ireland are subjected to grave and systematic violations of rights through being compelled to either travel outside Northern Ireland to procure a legal abortion or to carry their pregnancy to term.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-violates-womens-rights-says-un-committee; https://humanism.org.uk/2018/02/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-breaches-womens-rights-says-un/ and https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abortion-northern-ireland-un-women-human-rights-a8819306.html
A submission advocating the need for the people of Northern Ireland to access free, safe and legal local abortions facilities regardless of their ability, ethnicity, income level, migration status, or geographic location.
This link includes some of the campaigns and articles on abortion advocacy by Amnesty International. The most interesting articles have been selected to give a sense of how the campaigns developed since 2017. But users should keep accessing it to look for further material Amnesty International will upload in the future.
See a poll conducted by Amnesty International on whether Northern Ireland should change its abortion law published on 30 November 2018
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/northern-ireland-abortion-law-poll.
See also https://www.amnesty.org.uk/abortion-poll-research-majority-people-northern-ireland-want-decriminalise for a poll conducted in May 2017 on the same issue.
See the open letter to Prime minister Theresa May to change ‘cruel’ Northern Ireland abortion law published on 21 November 2018
Link to pro-abortion campaigns led by Amnesty International, including links to the 2019 campaign #NowForNI, a campaign organised on the occasion of the celebration of the first anniversary of the repeal of the Eight Amendment in Ireland which led to the legalisation of abortion in the Irish Republic.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/safe-abortions-northern-ireland
See the petition for obtaining the legalisation of abortion in Ireland published on 16 February 2017.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/ireland-abortion-laws-repeal-eighth-amendment
In societies with anti-abortion norms, such as Northern Ireland, little is known about how these norms may be resisted by the adult population. The authors argue that resistance to religious and patriarchal norms can be fostered through adult community abortion education. They see this resistance as multi-faceted and bolstered by reference to lived experience. It does not necessarily involve abandoning religious beliefs.
Gives background to the lifting of the abortion ban in Northern Ireland, and the social campaigning behind it.
See also McGuinness, Sheelagh (2019) ‘Abortion Law Reform in Northern Ireland’, University of Bristol Portal, 25 October 2019.
https://legalresearch.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2019/10/abortion-law-reform-in-northern-ireland/
Provides a very detailed explanation of the legal framework on abortion before and after 22 October 2019. Comments also on the interpretation of the law, that could be useful for future campaigning an abortion rights.
Elucidates the differences between the conditions that led Ireland to a pro-abortion vote in May 2018 and the obstacles that Northern Ireland still then faced.
Highlights the different legal consequences that women might face in Alabama, where a ban on abortion was enacted in May 2019 (likely to be challenged in the courts), and compares them to those then existing in Northern Ireland. Although Northern Ireland passed the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018 that allows abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, women could still face life sentences because the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 remained in place.
See also https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2019/05/alabama-abortion-rights-are-under-threat-northern-ireland-they-never and https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/alabama-abortion-ban-georgia-northern-ireland-dup-theresa-may-a8915141.html
This book, which covers the period from the early peace process in the 1980s to 2017, is a comprehensive study of abortion politics and policy in Northern Ireland. Adopting a feminist institutionalist framework, the author illustrates the ways in which abortion has been addressed at both the national level at Westminster and the devolved level at Stormont.
The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.
For more information about ICNC, please see their website.
The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.
esistance.info
