View Commonwealth Secretariat's Reply :  View  in PDF    (9 June 2006)

View United for Life's Reply To The Commonwealth Secretariat  View  in PDF 6 October 2006

View Why the Commonwealth Secretariat must oppose the killing of children by abortion,  contraception, human embryo experimentation, IVF, human cloning, and related activities; how such activities are modern forms of slavery, destroy the environment, and how Human Rights apply.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHRs) protects the right to life of ‘all members of the human family’.  Since the unborn are members of the human family the UDHRs protects the right to life of the unborn.  The Declaration on the Rights of the Child states that, ‘...the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.’

The Commonwealth Secretariat failed to reply to our letter of 28th December 2005 asking them to join our Make Abortion History campaign.  This raised the question of the Commonwealth Secretariat's commitment to implementing in full the UDHRs and the Declaration on the Rights of the Child in regard to the unborn and so we questioned this organisation further.  Silence is not an option where human rights are concerned and so we wrote to them again on 22nd May 2006 urging the Commonwealth Secretariat to reply.

The Commonwealth Secretariat replied on 9th June 2006.  You can read the Commonwealth Secretariat's reply from the link above.

The Commonwealth Secretariat reply of 9th June 2006 stated that,

‘As you may be aware, the Commonwealth Secretariat is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 countries.  We respect the position of our member countries on this issue but there is no Commonwealth position on it.  We do , however, continue to work for the promotion and protection of human rights of all as one of our core fundamental values.  We also continue to work with Commonwealth Countries for the promotion of the reproductive health rights of women.’

However, the Commonwealth’s document entitled:  Report of the Commonwealth Beijing+10 Meeting of Women’s Affairs Ministers , 27th February 2005, published by the Gender Section, Social Transformations Programmes Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, celebrates the,

‘...successful negotiations of the Beijing+10 Declaration without a proposed US amendment to the effect that the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) and Beijing+5 outcome document “do not create new international human rights and do not include the right to abortion”.’

The US amendment was clearly aimed at excluding any interpretation of the documents to include a human right to abortion.  In other words, the Commonwealth Secretariat was celebrating the possibility that some countries, organisations or individuals could interpret the declaration to include the right to abortion.

This means that the Commonwealth Secretariat does in fact take a position on abortion.

United for Life replied to the Commonwealth Secretariat on  6th October 2006 .

United for Life would like to demonstrate to the Commonwealth Secretariat and other organisations how the killing of children by abortion, contraception, sterilisation and related activities such as human embryo experimentation, human cloning and IVF, violate international human rights instruments including instruments on slavery and therefore should be addressed by national and international human rights programmes and campaigns.

Read more about how abortion and related activities are modern forms of slavery.

No group of humans can be treated as 'non-persons' and this includes the disabled, the elderly, slaves, Jews, the unborn or any other group, including human embryos.  Thus, no excuse can be made to exclude any group of humans from equal protection under law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims these Rights as ‘ ...a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’ and that ’ ...every individual and every organ of society ...shall strive ...to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance ...among the peoples of Member States.’  It is therefore United for Life's duty to call upon the Commonwealth Secretariat to help promote legal protection for children before as well as after birth.

Read :  How Abortion Violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.