It’s time to end the division and roll back to original position on a contentious issue

AMNESTY International used the recent International Human Rights Day to draw attention to various terrible and grievous human rights abuses being perpetrated all round the world.

One of the issues Amnesty has confronted in recent times has been the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war, in Darfur currently and in Bosnia previously, and the ensuing pregnancies that result.

And properly so — nobody could feel anything but compassion and sympathy for the victims of such horrendous acts.

Purportedly in support of this work, the international executive committee of Amnesty International last April voted to change Amnesty’s policy of being neutral on the issue of abortion and its availability to one of being in support of it. To very many active and long-standing Amnesty members around the world, this was a decision that was fundamentally flawed in its conception and its execution.

Many of these same people now find themselves in the invidious position of having to leave the organisation, ironically, on the grounds of conscience — the very thing Amnesty International was set up to protect.

There are very many good reasons why Amnesty International, in its previous 46 years of existence, had studiously avoided this issue. Unfortunately, the limited space provided by the letters page does not lend itself to illuminating and elaborating on them.

With that being the case, we at Roll Back Amnesty — an organisation comprised of current and former members of Amnesty International (who are people of faith and non-faith, of a pro-life and pro-choice disposition) — invite the secretary-general of Amnesty International and all members to visit our website at www.rollbackamnesty.com so that we can begin a more proper and full dialogue within Amnesty International than has occurred to date. We believe this can only logically result in a return to Amnesty’s previous position of being entirely neutral on the issue of abortion.

And having done so, we will be able to redirect the energy expended on this internal matter to helping prevent rapes and other sexual violations from occurring in the first place.

Andrew Eager

Amnesty International and Roll Back Amnesty

28 Patrick Street

Dun Laoghaire

Co Dublin