Does the European Convention on Human Rights set out a right to abortion?
Written question
No.
633 to the Committee of Ministers
| Doc. 13181
| 23 April 2013
The Council of Europe is being increasingly
accused of liberalising abortion in countries such as Ireland and Poland.
This is a serious allegation which requires clarification from the
Committee of Ministers.
A reply is needed from the Committee of Ministers because
this Committee decides on Council of Europe policy, is made up of
representatives of the States Parties to the European Convention
on Human Rights and the European Social Charter, and determines
the requisite effective scope of the Court’s judgments when supervising
their execution.
Mr Volontè,
To ask the Committee of Ministers:
- Can the Committee of Ministers confirm that the Council
of Europe is not committed to a policy of promoting access to abortion?
- Can the Committee of Ministers, to the extent that it
comprises representatives of the States Parties to the European
Convention of Human Rights and the European Social Charter, confirm
that it was never the intention of the authors of these instruments
to establish a convention-based right to abortion?
For
its part, the European Court of Human Rights has already specified
that the European Convention on Human Rights does not comprise a
right to abortion: the Convention does not secure the right to undergo
an abortion, to practise abortion, or to help, with impunity, to
ensure its practice abroad. The fact of a State banning abortion
does not
per se violate the
Convention. The Court has established the principle that the right
to respect for private life “cannot (…) be interpreted as enshrining
a right to abortion”.
