Northern Ireland

Calls for return of Stormont assembly following Sarah Ewart high court judgment

Les Allamby, Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission. Picture by Hugh Russell
Les Allamby, Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission. Picture by Hugh Russell

HUMAN Rights Commission chief Les Allamby said the body is "delighted" at Sarah Ewart's High Court victory which will have a "wider impact (on) the future for women and girls in Northern Ireland".

The Commission had supported her case, following on from its own 2018 Supreme Court case which also found Northern Ireland laws contrary to human rights standards.

Sinn Féin northern leader Michelle O'Neill commended Mrs Ewart and her mother Jane Christie's "bravery and determination", adding "they should never have had to" bring the case.

She said there "is now an urgent need for reform of the legislation", but insisted the party "believes that this and all outstanding rights issues in the north of Ireland should properly be dealt with, not at Westminster, but by locally accountable politicians in the assembly".

Green Party leader Clare Bailey said now "multiple courts and committees have set out that our abortion law breaches international human rights standards".

"I hope that no other woman has to force the government to live up to their human rights obligation in the same way ever again," she said.

But Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) chief executive, Nola Leach insisted the judgment "relates to a very, very small number of complex cases" and "in no way justifies the sweeping changes that will be imposed on the people of Northern Ireland if the assembly is not restored by October 21".

"Thanks to Westminster’s decision to by-pass devolution, Northern Ireland will have one of the most extreme abortion laws in Europe with nearly all the existing protections for women and babies changed or removed."

She called for the restoration of the assembly "as soon as possible".

Meanwhile, Liam Gibson of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children insisted "abortion is not a human right - it is an act of lethal violence directed at an innocent child and is never justified".

"Not one of the nine core UN human rights treaties even mentions abortion," he said, branding the court ruling "absurd... eventually it will be overturned".