World watched Irish marriage equality vote ‘with bated breath’, judge says

The marriage equality referendum was “watched with bated breath” around the world, a judge of South Africa’s highest court has said during a trip to the Republic.

Justice Edwin Cameron has sat on South Africa’s Constitutional Court since 2009 - the equivalent of the Supreme Court - and was described by former president Nelson Mandela as “one of South Africa’s new heroes” after he appointed him to the bench.

"It was deeply moving for LGBTI people all over the world," he told the Irish Times ahead of delivering the Free Legal Advice Centres' annual Dave Ellis Memorial Lecture in Dublin on Wednesday.

“It was the first time a populace has voted in favour of gay and lesbian marriage equality so it was a wonderful moment for Ireland but also for the whole world,” he said.

“We saw the evidence under apartheid of what a narrowly sectionalised economic system privileging one group can do. It damages people not only in terms of dignity but it damages economic development and flourishing.

“We’ve had our own difficulties in the post-apartheid economy but there’s absolutely no doubt that removing barriers to people’s education and advancement has led to an unshackling of economic power.”

Abortion laws

Separately, Mr Cameron said South Africa’s “very very liberal” abortion laws sprang from “a very profound sense of social injustice”.

“We’ve chosen a path of very explicit freedom for a woman to choose up to late stage pregnancy,” he said. “We don’t have your section eight [right to life of the unborn], and we also have the right to reproductive choice explicitly enshrined in our constitution.

“The legislation sprang from a very powerful sense of the socially stratified impact of anti-abortion laws; that it’s poor women who are targeted by them; that it’s poor women that are targeted by backstreet abortions and whose lives are endangered.

“It was also mostly poor women that were prosecuted, so it was a very profound sense of the social injustice of anti-abortion laws that led to our law. That’s not meant to be an implicit critique of Ireland but that’s the South African perspective.”

Judicial appointments

Speaking about the process of judicial appointments, Mr Cameron said there were “enormous benefits” to removing the power from government.

Currently in the Republic, the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, which is primarily made up of members of the legal profession, makes recommendations to the Minister for Justice for appointments to the bench.

The Government has agreed to establish a new body, which will include a majority of lay non-legal people including victims’ rights groups and human rights bodies, to decide on judicial appointments.

“During apartheid, we had a system of secret government appointments that we have now thoroughly reformed,” he said. “We have a public process of interview which was resisted by many in the legal profession. The overall benefit of that has been enormous.

“There’s no question it does have its downsides. It disincentivises some skilled legal practitioners from putting their names forward. We have to acknowledge that, but at the same time the overall benefits have been marked.

“It’s a powerful job and you are subjected to a public process of scrutiny of your commitment to human rights, and your past. So, any dealings, transactions, and associations can often come out quite dramatically in the appointments process.”