Overstepping the Mark

Abstract

This article examines the position of the UN Convention on the Right of the Child with regard to pre-natal children in light of the 2016 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. These Observations of the Committee recommend that Ireland, as well as and other State parties to the Convention, decriminalise abortion in all circumstances. The article analyses the possible remit of the Convention to apply to pre-natal children and concludes that the Committee deviates from the Convention’s ethos of inclusive human rights and is overstepping the mark in imposing its abortion belief system on States parties to the Convention.