Sir, – The Kells Amnesty International Group recently held its 300th meeting and this year celebrates its 30th birthday, making us one of the oldest such groups in the country.
Founded in 1961, Amnesty International has traditionally maintained a policy of neutrality on the abortion issue. In 2007, however, Amnesty worldwide adopted a policy of favouring the liberalisation of abortion laws in certain circumstances, a development which was met with some disquiet within sections of the Irish membership, including the Kells group.
In 2013, Amnesty Ireland itself endorsed this global policy and decided to campaign actively on the abortion issue. This led to even further disquiet within our group. We continued to campaign, however, on all the traditional issues for which we had originally joined Amnesty – for prisoners of conscience, against torture, against the death penalty and on behalf of refugees.
Amnesty Ireland’s involvement in the global 2014-16 My Body My Rights campaign has seen it campaign, among other things, for the liberalisation of Irish abortion laws. More recently, Amnesty Ireland has decided to continue campaigning on the abortion issue after the expiry of the My Body My Rights campaign. More specifically, it will campaign for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
There are a variety of viewpoints within our group on abortion and on the Eighth Amendment itself. We nevertheless agree that this latest step is one too far. Amnesty International – traditionally a broad-based human rights organisation – will find itself involved in a highly partisan manner in internal Irish politics, and in a referendum campaign, one which will inevitably reflect ideological and other differences much wider than the highly sensitive and divisive issue of abortion itself.
As a local Amnesty group this places us in an invidious position. After much deliberation we have reluctantly decided to disband the Kells group after our final meeting on June 23rd. Several of us are longstanding Amnesty members who have already suspended our individual financial membership.
We wish to convey two key messages to the public: not everyone in Amnesty agrees with its current policy on abortion; Amnesty is about much more than abortion – it is about campaigning on a whole range of human rights issues in order to help make a better world.
Despite the disbanding of the Kells Amnesty Group, as individuals we will continue to work on human rights issues by other means. We wish to thank all the people who have supported us – both financially and otherwise – over the years. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL BROWNE
(Co-ordinator),
ANNE MOORE
(Secretary),
MARTIN FLANAGAN
(Treasurer),
Dr MARY COFFEY,
Dr DANNY CUSACK,
Kells Amnesty
International Group,
Kells,
Co Meath.