Professor Siobhán Mullally:

The European Court of Human Rights at the time of the ABC judgment noted that 40 contracting states to the European Convention on Human Rights allowed for access to abortion on health grounds. That was part of what it was looking at. In terms of our mandate to look at international human rights law, that has been repeatedly found to be a part of the right to health to ensure that there is access to a lawful abortion on health grounds. In the committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this is part of the development of international human rights law. That is what we are drawing on in terms of the nature of our mandate as a national human rights institution. In terms of what was described as being the European position at the time of the ABC judgment, the court noted that on health grounds 40 contracting states to the European Convention on Human Rights at that time allowed for access to a lawful abortion on health grounds.