View The Wilberforce Institute Reply :  View  in PDF (replied by email -
2nd November 2006)

View   Why the Wilberforce Institute 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.’

United for Life wrote to the Wilberforce Institute on 29th December 2005 and again on 22nd May 2006, inviting the Wilberforce Institute to join our Make Abortion History campaign.  United for Life received no reply from them so we wrote to the Wilberforce Institute again on 10th October 2006 .

It is important to understand that the Wilberforce Institute states in its 'aims and objectives' that,

‘WISE  [ Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation ]  is an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to the pursuit of world-class research in the areas of slavery, emancipation, human rights, and social justice, historically and in the contemporary world.  It seeks to provide a forum for academic discourse and interaction, to advance academic knowledge and public understanding of historical and contemporary debates, to inform policy change and the campaigns of activists, and to work with others to generate knowledge transfer.’

‘WISE will advance understanding of the historical and contemporary development of slavery and the efforts to eradicate it, thereby not only further enlightening our knowledge of the past but also informing contemporary political and social change.’

With the aims and objectives of the Wilberforce Institute in mind our letter of 10th October 2006 demonstrated to the Wilberforce Institute 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.

Our letter demonstrated how the killing of children by abortion and its related activities violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the Convention on the Rights of the Child , the Convention on Slavery , the Convention of the Sale of Children and the Convention on Genocide .

The Wilberforce Institute replied 2nd November 2006 , by email as follows,

‘Thank you for your letter of 10th October...  I am chairing a meeting of our management group this morning and will raise the matters in your letter then.  I have to say it is unlikely that we would take a position as an organisation as we view this as a matter of personal and political choice.  ... If you do not hear from me again, you may take it that we do not wish to take your letter further.’

Since then we have received ‘no further letter’ and yet all the evidence is that the killing of children by abortion and its related activities are modern forms of slavery.

Slavery defenders of the past claimed slavery as ‘...a matter of personal and political choice’,  and was therefore legalised, as the following article entitled  Modern-Day Slavery Defenders  shows.

The Wilberforce Institute declares its aims are to ‘...advance understanding of the historical and contemporary development of slavery and the efforts to eradicate it’ and ‘...informing contemporary political and social change.’  Before 1807 the salve-trade was a legal activity.  The 1807 Act of Abolition shows that the law can be changed.  The Wilberforce Institute claims to be ‘...informing contemporary political and social change’ and this must be no less the case for the law regarding children and family life.  The Wilberforce Institute must therefore be active in lobbying for the full implementation of the  Convention on the Rights of the Child  in regard to the unborn, into British and European law.

You can read in full the case we present to the Wilberforce Institute from  here .

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 Wilberforce Institute to help promote legal protection for children before as well as after birth.

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