San Jose Articles Launched in London, Strasbourg, San Jose, and Madrid

By Austin Ruse | November 3, 2011

NEW YORK, November 3 (C-FAM) The expert document known as the San Jose Articles is receiving a global and uniformly positive reception. Since its initial launch at United Nations headquarters early last month, the Articles have been launched in the British House of Lords, the European Parliament, at a press conference in Madrid, and at the World Pro-Life Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Thirty experts in international law, international relations, public health and government drafted the Articles in order to counter arguments that there exists an international right to abortion. Governments are coming under extreme pressure from UN committees and abortion advocates to liberalize abortion laws. Their argument is that such a right comes from existing treaty obligations or under customary international law. The prestigious group of San Jose signatories makes clear these arguments are false.

Lord David Alton and Lord Nicholas Windsor of the British Royal Family launched the Articles in the British House of Lords on October 10th. The launch was covered in the British press and landed on the front page of the Telegraph newspaper and on its webpage for several days.

Lord Windsor wrote, “The Articles aim to show that there is no ‘right to abortion’ to be found in international law that would oblige such countries to ‘conform, or else’. This is in spite of the UN and other agencies’ claims to the contrary. Human rights lawyers of a certain stamp around the world are taking the same pro-abortion line, manipulating the current provisions of international law. Frankly, officials and politicians in developing countries are being bullied into writing such a right to abortion into their domestic law. This project aims to help them to fight back.”

Dr. Anna Zaborska, Member of the European Parliament from Slovakia, launched the Articles in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 24th. Gregor Puppinck of the European Center for Law and Justice and Roger Kiska of the Alliance Defense Fund joined her.

Zaborska, former Chairman of the Women’s Committee of the European Parliament, said, “We launch these articles now publicly as the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice issued a ruling on October 18, 2011 for the first time and in a manner that is binding for 27 Member States, that human life begins at conception and that it is deserving of legal protection. The San Jose Articles are a new tool that will be used by lawyers, law professors, judges, legislators, journalists, students, and civil society to defend the unborn child.”

Martha de Casco of the Honduran Parliament, along with Yuri Mantilla of Focus on the Family, Piero Tozzi of the Alliance Defense Fund, and Susan Yoshihara of C-FAM (publisher of the Friday Fax) launched the Articles at the World Pro-Life Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica on October 29th.

Launches of the San Jose Articles will continue and are expected in Peru, Argentina, in the Italian Parliament and possibly in the Russian Duma.

The Articles are up in several languages with many more to come and can be viewed at www.sanjosearticles.org.

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