The UN’s human rights committee has called on the Irish government to reform its restrictive abortion legislation, after ruling that it subjected a woman to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and violated her human rights. 
 
 The landmark ruling, which is expected to set an international precedent, calls on Ireland to introduce “accessible procedures for pregnancy termination” to prevent similar violations in the future. The judgment marks the first time that an international human rights committee has recognised that by criminalising abortion, a state has violated a woman’s human rights. 
 
 
 
 More Irish women seeking help for British abortions, says charity Read more 
 
 A panel of UN human rights committee experts found that Ireland’s prohibition and criminalisation of abortion services subjected Amanda Mellet to severe emotional and mental pain and suffering in 2011, when she was told she could not have an abortion in Ireland even though doctors had discovered that the foetus had congenital defects that meant it would die in the womb or shortly after birth. 
 
 Ruling on Mellet’s complaint, the committee concluded that Ireland’s abortion laws, which are among the most restrictive in the world, meant that she had to chose “between continuing her non-viable pregnancy or travelling to another country while carrying a dying foetus, at personal expense, and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered”. This violated her right to freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. 
 
 Ireland has signed the international covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR), which is part of the international bill of human rights. As such, it is obliged to compensate Mellet and to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future, the ruling states. 
 
 Ireland “should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary its constitution, to ensure compliance with the covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland”, the ruling stated. 
 
 Lawyers said the judgment could help trigger reform in other countries with restrictive abortion laws. “The decision is so significant that lawyers who are working with women who have been denied access to abortion across the world will be very encouraged and will be using it in their work to seek justice for their clients and legal change in countries where access to abortion services is criminalised,” Leah Hoctor, the regional director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who filed the complaint to the UN human rights committee on Mellet’s behalf, said. 
 
 Prohibited from accessing a termination in Ireland, Mellet chose to travel to the UK and returned 12 hours after the procedure because she could not afford to stay longer. She had to pay for private treatment, and the round trip cost €3,000. Her foetus’s ashes were unexpectedly delivered three weeks later by courier. 
 
 “Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if [she] had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted,” the committee wrote in its findings. 
 
 Mellett welcomed the ruling, and said in a statement: “The Human Rights Committee has made it clear that to redress the violations that I suffered, the Irish Government must ensure that other women do not live through similar violations of their rights. This cannot happen until until abortion is decriminalised and legislation is adopted to enable women to access services in Ireland. 
 
 “I hope the day will soon come when women in Ireland will be able to access the health services they need in our own country, where we can be with our loved ones, with our own medical team, and where we have our own familiar bed to go home and cry in. Subjecting women to so much additional pain and trauma simply must not continue.” 
 
 As well as confronting the shame and stigma associated with the criminalisation of abortion, Mellet’s suffering was made worse by the difficulties she faced in getting information about how to access an abortion, the committee said. Ireland’s Abortion Information Act allows healthcare providers to give patients information about the circumstances when abortion services can be available in Ireland or abroad, but the law prohibits them from saying anything that could be interpreted as promoting abortion. 
 
 
 
 The ruling said Ireland needed to take measures to ensure that healthcare providers are able to supply full information on safe abortion services “without fearing being subjected to criminal sanctions”, the committee said. 
 
 Abortion is permitted in Ireland only when there is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman. In every other circumstance it is a serious crime. Since 1983, the Irish constitution has placed the “right to life of the unborn” on an equal footing with the right to life of the pregnant woman. 
 
 Ireland’s health minister, Simon Harris, said he had read the committee’s report and found “the experience this woman had deeply upsetting. I have met with families who have been through the trauma of knowing their baby will not survive and I have been very moved by hearing of their experiences. I want to see this issue addressed”. 
 
 Hoctor said: “When a woman is denied the right to make decisions about her pregnancy, her health and wellbeing are jeopardised. In recognising that by outlawing abortion Ireland violated the human rights of Amanda Mellet and caused her intense anguish and distress, the committee has issued a landmark ruling confirming that Ireland’s abortion laws are cruel and inhumane, and violate women’s human rights. 
 
 “The Irish government must now comply with this ruling, redress the harm Ms Mellet suffered and reform its laws to ensure other women do not continue to face similar violations.” 
 
 Colm O’Gorman, the executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, said: “The Irish government must act promptly. Ireland’s constitution is no excuse. It must be changed to allow the reforms required by this ruling.” ||||| Ireland's ban on abortion subjected a woman carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the United Nations has found. 
 
 It called for the strict prohibition to be reversed, including reforming the right to life of the unborn in the Constitution if necessary, to allow women to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy safely. 
 
 Independent experts, from the Geneva-based Human Rights Committee, said Amanda Mellet was forced to choose between carrying her baby to term, knowing it would not survive, or travelling abroad for a termination. 
 
 The UN body also hit out at the Government for putting her through financial and emotional suffering. 
 
 Its report said she had to pick "between continuing her non-viable pregnancy or travelling to another country while carrying a dying foetus, at personal expense and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered". 
 
 The UN has ordered the Government to compensate Ms Mellet and ensure she gets the adequate psychological treatment she may need and to prevent similar violations from occurring. 
 
 Ms Mellet was 21 weeks pregnant in November 2011 when doctors told her the foetus would die in her womb or shortly after birth. 
 
 She travelled to the UK for an abortion but had to return home 12 hours after the procedure as she could not afford to stay longer. 
 
 The UN committee said the hospital where she was treated did not provide any options regarding the foetus's remains and she had to leave them behind. 
 
 Three weeks later the ashes were unexpectedly delivered to her by courier. 
 
 Ms Mellet filed a complaint with the UN over her experiences. 
 
 The human rights organisation said she was discriminated against by being denied bereavement counselling and medical care available to women who miscarry. 
 
 It said this did not take into account her medical needs and socio-economic circumstances. 
 
 "Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if [she] had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted," the committee said. 
 
 The UN also noted the shame and stigma associated with the criminalisation of abortion of a fatally-ill foetus. 
 
 It said Ms Mellet's suffering was aggravated by the obstacles she faced in getting information about the appropriate medical options. 
 
 The UN said the strict rules that support groups in Ireland can provide on information have a chilling effect on healthcare workers. 
 
 It said some struggle to distinguish between support for a woman who has decided to terminate a pregnancy and promoting abortion. 
 
 In its findings the UN said: "The State party should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary its Constitution, to ensure compliance with the Covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland, and take measures to ensure that healthcare providers are in a position to supply full information on safe abortion services without fearing being subjected to criminal sanctions." 
 
 Ireland's stringent rules on abortion are protected under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution which deals with the right to life of the unborn. 
 
 Last year new rules came into effect under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 to allow for abortion when there is a real and substantial risk to a woman's life - including suicide. 
 
 But the ban remains on termination in cases of rape, incest, inevitable miscarriage and fatal foetal abnormality. 
 
 In a statement this afternoon, Ms Mellet said: "I am profoundly grateful to the Human Rights Committee for its decision and its clear recognition that my human rights were violated as a result of Ireland's prohibition and criminalisation of abortion. 
 
 "The decision not only vindicates my rights. It also serves to uphold the rights of many other women in Ireland who have faced and continue to face human rights violations under the current legal regime." 
 
 Mixed reaction to report 
 
 A group opposed to abortion has criticised the UN report. 
 
 Tracy Harkin of Every Life Counts said that the UN had "deliberately ignored the experiences of families who had received great joy and love from carrying their babies to term", and added that it was "shameful for the UN to ignore the fact that these children were alive and kicking in the womb, and deserved equal protection and love". 
 
 She said: "The language used by the UN reflects the appalling attitude of discrimination which is pushing families towards abortion, and denies them time with their sick babies, time that allows them to make memories and provides a pathway to healing. 
 
 "Our experiences with our children, whether their lives spanned hours, weeks or years, has taught us that abortion solves nothing and brings no comfort to either the baby or the family involved." 
 
 The Pro Life Campaign has said the comments were further proof that the committee "is 100% partisan in favour of abortion and never takes account of the hugely damaging effects of abortion on both mother and baby". 
 
 Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said: "The UN's Human Rights Committee has become a de facto lobby group for abortion. Every few months they castigate Ireland's abortion laws but are totally silent when it comes to investigating abuses in the abortion industry. 
 
 "It is unbelievable how one-sided they have become and they need to be called out on it. The same committee that is always challenging Ireland on its abortion laws has never once taken countries like Britain and Canada to task over the horrific practice of babies being born alive after failed abortions and left to die in hospital corners." 
 
 Terminations for Medical Reasons welcomed the decision of the committee saying "The Committee has determined that Ireland, by refusing access to safe and legal abortion services, is abusing women by treating them in a cruel, inhuman and degrading manner." 
 
 In a statement the group commended Ms Mellet for the "brave and selfless manner in which she took her complaint against Ireland to the UN, with the assistance of the Center for Reproductive Rights." 
 
 "This UN decision makes it incumbent upon Ireland to act promptly to take measures to prevent further abuse. It is bad enough that our Government is complicit in this, but any delays would make them architects of such abuse" the statement said. 
 
 The Catholic Primate of All Ireland Eamon Martin has said he has some difficulty with outside bodies telling Ireland what to do on abortion law. 
 
 The Archbishop of Armagh said it was a choice for Irish people, adding that the right to life trumped all other rights, including the right to choose, and if that was taken away then everything else crumbled. 
 
 He also cited the thousands who came out last weekend for a ProLife rally celebrating the Eighth Amendment and he questioned why anyone would take that equality away. 
 
 He said the church position remains to respect the life of mothers and unborn children. 
 
 The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the report "cranks up the pressure" on the Government to reform Ireland's "antediluvian" abortion laws. 
 
 ICCL Executive Director Mark Kelly said: "This latest denunciation of one aspect of Ireland's abortion regime comes as no surprise, as it was already a matter of public record that UN Human Rights Committee considers that Ireland's abortion law violates the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 
 
 "This latest opinion has no direct legal effect in this State; however, it joins a chorus of expert voices reminding Ireland that its abortion regime is wildly out of kilter with abortion law and practice in the family of civilised nations." 
 
 In the Dáil, Independents4Change TD Clare Daly said she would like to ask how the Government proposes to deal with this morning's "ground breaking international decision issued against Ireland by the UN Human Rights' Commission where Ireland as a state party to the international covenant on civil and political rights was found guilty of violating the human rights of a woman who was denied a determination in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality." 
 
 She said "not only is the Government in the statement obliged to provide her with an effective remedy, including compensation, but obliged to prevent similar violations in the future. 
 
 "So can the minister [Richard Bruton] confirm the Government will be awarding compensation to the woman in question and what steps are you immediately going to take to ensure that human rights are not being violated by addressing the legislative shortcomings, including as suggested by the UNHRC the amendment of our Constitution in relation to the same issue?" 
 
 Sinn Féin's Louise O'Reilly asked; "When are we going to see the Citizens Assembly? When will the membership be known? And will it be mandated to recommend a referendum on repealing the Eight Amendment?" 
 
 Independent TD Catherine Connolly called for an answer to the question posed to Mr Bruton by Ms Daly. 
 
 She read out the UN finding, and said: "I listened to the Taoiseach misquote what has happened in relation to various amendments to the Constitution. 
 
 "It is important that the voices of women are heard in this chamber." 
 
 AAA/PBP TD Joan Collins said she would like the minister to reply to Ms Daly's question and added, "I don't think we should be going through a Citizens' Convention on this issue. 
 
 "We have discussed this in the last Dáil in a lot of detail and we should be moving quite quickly now to repealing the Eight Amendment." 
 
 Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan reiterated that the discussion take place as soon as possible in the convention so the issue of the Eight Amendment can be addressed. 
 
 Responding, Mr Bruton said he has not seen the report from the Committee on Human Rights but he sympathises and understands the concerns of TDs for any woman with a fatal foetal abnormality. 
 
 He said he cannot answer for what action Government will take on foot of this finding. 
 
 He said that change in this area requires an amendment of our Constitution and the Programme for Government has set out that there will be a Citizen's Assembly established within six months. 
 
 Mr Bruton said it will not have a specific mandate and the Oireachtas will have the final decision on this. 
 
 He said that in the last Dáil, the work in holding hearings, bringing in expert advice and allowing deputies to see in a dispassionate way how difficult issues can be handled, was of benefit to the Oireachtas. 
 
 The minister said that it allowed the Dáil to reach conclusions on the issue of constitutional rights being converted into law that no government had broached in the previous years. 
 
 Ms Daly said it is not acceptable to say he cannot answer for the Government on this issue. 
 
 Meanwhile, an independent expert on the UN Committee has said the Irish Government must amend its law and possibly the Constitution in relation to fatal foetal abnormalities. 
 
 Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Sarah Cleveland said the law is in contradiction with Ireland's obligations under the European Union human rights treaty. 
 
 Ms Cleveland said Ireland must also review and amend laws so that healthcare providers can provide people, who find themselves in such a situation, with adequate information on their choices without fear of legal repercussions. 
 
 She acknowledged that the matter is a sensitive issue in Ireland but said that families should have the right to chose whether they carry to full term or chose to terminate in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities. 
 
 She said the Committee does not have any enforcement mechanisms but added that Ireland can be pressed on the matter at future appearances before the UN committee. ||||| GENEVA/DUBLIN (Reuters) - An Irish woman forced to choose between carrying her baby with a fatal congenital defect to term and going abroad for an abortion had her rights violated and deserves compensation, a United Nations panel said on Thursday. 
 
 Abortion laws in majority Roman Catholic Ireland are among the most restrictive in the world: a complete ban on terminating a pregnancy was lifted in 2013 after large street protests from both sides. It is now allowed if a mother’s life is in danger. 
 
 The woman known as “AM” complained to the U.N. Human Rights Committee after being told in the 21st week of pregnancy in November 2011 that her baby would die in the womb or shortly after birth, which led her to have an abortion in Britain. 
 
 This meant she had to choose “between continuing her non-viable pregnancy or traveling to another country while carrying a dying fetus, at personal expense and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered”, the independent experts said in their findings. 
 
 The woman was subjected to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment prohibited under international law, they said.”Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if (she) had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted,” the Committee said. 
 
 In a statement, the U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Rights welcomed the “ground-breaking ruling” as sending “the clear message that Ireland’s abortion laws are cruel and inhumane, and violate women’s human rights”. 
 
 Ireland, which has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is obliged to provide AM with an effective remedy, including adequate compensation and psychological treatment she may need, the U.N. panel said. Ireland is also obliged to prevent similar violations, it said. 
 
 Amnesty International Ireland’s head, Colm O’Gorman, said in a statement: “The Irish government must take its head out of the sand and see that it has to tackle this issue.” 
 
 The abortion issue is hugely divisive in Ireland and the new minority government resisted calls to directly loosen the laws, instead leaving it to a citizens’ assembly which will be established by year-end to recommend any changes to the law. 
 
 Activists want to abolish the amendment of the constitution which enshrines the equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child, and at the very least allow for abortion in cases such as rape, incest and fatal fetal abnormality. 
 
 Anti-abortion supporters demand that the eighth amendment remains in place to safeguard all life. Abolishing it would require a national referendum. ||||| DUBLIN (AP) — United Nations human rights experts said Thursday that Ireland's abortion ban subjects women to discriminatory, cruel and degrading treatment and should be ended for cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities. 
 
 The 29-page report from the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Committee accepted a complaint filed by Amanda Mellet, a Dublin woman who was denied a 2011 abortion in Ireland after her doctor informed her that her fetus had a fatal heart defect and could not survive outside the womb. 
 
 Ireland permits abortions only in cases where the woman's own life is endangered by continued pregnancy. Its ban on abortion in all other circumstances requires women to carry a physiologically doomed fetus to full term in Ireland or travel abroad for abortions, usually to England, where thousands of Irish citizens have abortions annually. 
 
 The U.N. Human Rights Committee, constituting experts from 17 nations led by Fabian Salvioli of Argentina, found that Ireland's abortion law violates the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on several points and called for widespread reform. 
 
 The panel wields no power to compel change from Ireland, a predominantly Roman Catholic nation that maintains the strictest laws on abortion in the 28-nation EU. Ireland's government offered no immediate reaction to the findings. 
 
 But human rights watchdog Amnesty International said the U.N. findings should shame Ireland into further action, three years after the country legalized abortions deemed necessary to save a pregnant woman's life. That move followed the 2012 death in an Irish hospital of an Indian woman, Savita Halappanavar, who suffered lethal blood poisoning while doctors refused to perform an abortion of her dying fetus. 
 
 "The Irish government must take its head out of the sand and see that it has to tackle this issue," said Colm O'Gorman, Amnesty's director in Ireland. 
 
 A series of opinion polls since 2013 have recorded majority support for extending abortion access to cases involving fatal defects and pregnancies caused by rape or incest, but anti-abortion activists argue that permitting any further exceptions to the ban would lead eventually to the legalization of abortion on demand. 
 
 The U.N. report said Ireland's law made the rights of inviable fetuses superior to the rights of women and this arbitrary imbalance "cannot be justified," because the unborn child's life cannot be saved. It said Ireland's restrictions on providing clear advice and state-supported medical care to women who receive abortions overseas caused Mellet "intense suffering" and her experience "amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." 
 
 The panel called on Ireland to amend its laws to comply with U.N. treaty obligations, provide financial compensation to Mellet and ensure she has access to state-supported counseling services. It said Ireland specifically should amend its laws to ensure that no other women with pregnancies involving fatal fetal abnormalities should be forced to carry them to full term. 
 
 The experts also found that Ireland's underlying criminal law on abortion was "discriminatory because it places the burden of criminal liability primarily on the pregnant woman." 
 
 Mellet testified that Dublin doctors informed her during scans that her child was likely to die inside the womb but could not be aborted, only removed after it perished. After three weeks, she checked with doctors to see if her now 24-week-old fetus still had a heartbeat and, when told it was still alive, traveled with her husband to the English city of Liverpool. There, doctors induced a 36-hour labor that ended in a stillborn baby girl. 
 
 Mellet was denied any access to state-funded bereavement counseling in Ireland because Irish maternity hospitals are permitted to provide such services only to women who agree to carry their fetuses to the point of birth or miscarriage. Her legal complaint was accompanied by expert opinions from a Trinity College Dublin professor in midwifery and a clinical psychologist who found that Ireland's restrictions inflict unnecessary long-term trauma on women carrying fetuses likely to die in the womb or at birth. 
 
 The woman told the panel she had wanted to take her stillborn daughter's remains back with her to Ireland, but the Liverpool hospital didn't permit this. "She received the ashes, unexpectedly, three weeks later by courier, which deeply upset her," the report said. 
 
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 Associated Press reporter Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story. 
 
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 Online: 
 
 Report, http://bit.ly/25NrsFz
– The UN's human rights committee says Ireland's effective ban on abortion violated a woman's human rights and must be reformed in what the Guardian calls "a ground-breaking judgment that is expected to set an international precedent." The committee responded to the case of Amanda Mellet, who was denied an abortion during her 21st week of pregnancy in 2011—though doctors said her fetus had a heart defect and would die in the womb or shortly after birth—as a law makes abortion illegal unless a woman's life is at risk, per Reuters. Rather than continue with the pregnancy, Mellet traveled to the UK for an abortion, alone and at her own expense, and returned home 12 hours later, though she wasn't fully recovered, because she couldn't afford to stay longer. The committee says that amounted to cruel and inhumane treatment. "Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if [she] had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country," the committee says, calling on Ireland to allow "effective, timely, and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination." Though "the report carries no legal power," per the AP, Ireland must compensate Mellet and move to prevent similar cases under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, per the Guardian. Ireland's government has suggested it won't address the laws directly as a result of the decision—which has infuriated anti-abortion activists, per RTE News—but will ask a citizens' assembly to recommend changes.