Malta Unborn Child Movemernt and the European Union

THE COMEBACK OF EUROPE - MALTA TODAY 18-2-09

by Tony Mifsud

The comeback of Europe - Tony Mifsud Malta Unborn Child Movement

In another section of the press the French Ambassador to Malta Ms Daniel Rondeau heralded “the comeback of Europe”. After lamenting the loss “of Christian and Jewish roots” and a Europe “no longer in touch with its own identity” but “with a monstrous countenance”, he opined that “...the time has come for the Europe of self-seeking and egoism to make way for a Europe of brotherhood”. From a Europe “spurned and derided by the triumphs of nihilism” to “a Europe of youth and freshness.”

Rondeau also quoted former President of the Gzech Republic Vaclav Havel confiding in him that “Europe’s ambitions could not be reduced to those of a consumerisitc society and that one had always to be cautious and mistrust ‘the spirit of modernity and pretentiousness’”. Today the Czech Republic occupies the presidency of the European Union!

As if to console Rondeau, from Brussels came the news that members of the European Parliament have formed a new Human Dignity working group to promote the pro-life perspective on abortion and bioethics issues.

The group is being led by MEP Nirj Deva, a former candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary general of the United Nations. He said this is needed “because we believe it is essential to the balance between the rights and responsibilities of the individual and the power of the state.”

Another MEP, Gay Mitchell, said that “by recalling that man’s rights are inalienable from his/her being, and not the product of legal charter, the Working Group will promote an important principle regarding human dignity.” He added: “Though abortion advocates suggest pro-life lawmakers are forcing their views on society, the desire to promote the pro-life agenda recognizes that the situation is currently in reverse in Europe.”

A recent resolution in the European Parliament has shown an impressive large section, about 300 MEP, probably support this initiative, with great potential to bring change in this regard. The five Maltese MEPs deserve credit for showing to the world they are on the side of the dignity of human life, as expected.

Some time ago the Malta Unborn Child Movement – MUCM – made suggestions to the European Commission, on its request to civil society organizations in all members states, on the proposed first EU Charter on the Rights of the Child. MUCM recommended introducing provisions in the charter which cater for the rights, protection and development of the unborn child. MUCM has an official document from the Director General Justice, Freedom and Security of the EU Commission congratulating it for its contribution. MUCM was told that its suggestions were to be also transmitted to the Director General Health and Consumer Protection as some of them concern matters related to public health

MUCM’s venture is aligned with the position of the Malta Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a recent declaration on “current global issues” on the Ministry’s website (www.foreign.gov.mt -unborn child) in a section devoted solely to children, the Ministry declared that: “Malta will continue to actively support the protection of the basic human rights of children in the world particularly as laid out in the International Convention on the Rights of the child: the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and the right to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. Malta will continue to support international actions and policies that respect the rights of the unborn child and foster the best interests of children. In this context, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will seek a proactive engagement in the activities of UNICEF and other international bodies and initiatives dedicated to the welfare of children.”

Rondeau makes reference to “a few Europeans who decided to give their continent its face back after WWII and to their work on the old dream of the United States of Europe.” Today a united Europe is the experience of hundreds of millions of Europeans. One augurs that the dream of the new Human Dignity working group will be realized and that Malta would have helped, strategically, to bring this about.
The success of Malta’s first proposal, in 1967, to proclaim to the world the concept of the sea as the common heritage of mankind, and the second one, in 1988, in favour of climate change, show that Malta has the potential, and the will, to succeed in this one as well.

Tony Mifsud
Malta Unborn Child Movement

Friday, 1st February 2008

Birds and babies in the EU

Tony Mifsud, coordinator, Malta Unborn Child Movement, Fgura.

According the The Times (January 30), the European Commission (EC) on January 30 was expected to ask the European Court of Justice to stop Malta from opening the hunting season because, as stated by the same EC " ...we have warned Malta over the past years that, according to the Commission, the continuation of spring hunting is illegal and goes against EU law". This, to protect the lives of birds which, in itself, is a very good thing.

Then the same Commission threatens Nicaragua, a country not even in the European Union, to change its laws to introduce abortion, otherwise development aid from the EC to Nicaragua will stop. This, to wilfully terminate the lives of babies. To kill little unborn children.

The same kind of signals, though so far in very disguised ways, have already come Malta's way, this time a member country of the European Union.

How cynical. When José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commisson, was in Malta lately for the euro changeover celebrations, and on many other occasions, he spoke about European shared values. A recent study revealed that many EU women abhor having children of any age.

I really wonder, considering the above, if Mr Barroso is seriously expecting the Maltese to share these kind of values, when we know that in many EU countries birds come before babies, unborn or born.

In the opposite direction Mr Barroso is seriously invited to examine the contribution from Malta, this time from the Malta Unborn Child Movement, made up of 44 Maltese organisations, sent to Franco Frattini, the Commissioner for Justice and Security, to make provisions for the rights, protection and development of the unborn child in the first EU Charter on the Rights of the Child which is being considered by the EU Commission at present. The EU Commission itself asked for these contributions.

The Angelilli Report commissioned by the European Commission to advise the EU Parliament on the drafting of the first EU Charter on the Rights of the Child recommended, in Section K (page 6) of the Preamble to the Report, that "the EU strategy on the rights of the child should be rooted in the values and principles laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child".

In section L (also page 6) the report further recommended that "the rights of children as autonomous legal beings should be recognised".

Paragraph 9 of the Preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states: "Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 'the child, by reason of his physical, and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth'."

When I spoke to Simon Busuttil, one of our MEPs, on this subject he told me that the EU Parliament was lately discussing this report.

Perhaps there is still some more time for Mr Barroso to intervene in this matter and see that the EU Charter on the Rights of the Child is really "rooted in the values and principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child" which makes very clear reference also to "appropriate legal protection to the child... before as well as after birth".

That would, at least, put birds and babies on a par in the eyes of all EU citizens and would give a more substantial meaning to the words "Euopean shares values".

Letter from MUCM to Mr Patrich Trousson - Justice Directorate EU Commission - Towards EU Strategy on Rights of the Child 1-9-07

Mr Patrich Trousson,
Deputy Head of Unit,
Directorate General,
Justice, Freeedom & Security,
European Commission, Brussels.
Sept 1, 2007
Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child
Communication from the EU Commission
Brussels 4.7.2006 COM(2006) 367 Final - Sec (2006)888 - Sec(2006) 889

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Reference is made to the above-mentioned document, especially Section IV – Conclusions – where it is written that the EU Commission :

1. will develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the European Union contributes to promoting and safeguarding children’s rights in all its internal and external actions and supports the efforts of the Members States in this field;

2. calls on all Member States, on the European institutions and on other stakeholders to take an active part in the development of this strategy and so to contribute to its success.

In this context reference is made to the Malta “contribution” on this subject - The Malta Charter on the Unborn Child - dated 19th May, 2006, sent to EU Vice-President Franco Frattini by the Malta Unborn Child Movement - MUCM - and the reply from Dr Frattini’s Office, bearing your signiture, dated 23rd June, 2006.

It is observed that the MUCM’s “contribution” of 19-5-2006 to the EU Commission Final Communication on a Strategy on the Rights of the Child was sent very close to the publication of the EU Strategy and therefore may account, amongst other considerations, for the non-inclusion, in the EU Communication, of references to, and recommendations about, the unborn child.

The MUCM would like to bring to the attention of the Directorate working on the EU Strategy on the Rights of the the Child that its work is proactive and is mainly concerned with the rights of the unborn child for life, good health, protection from harm and wholesome development.

It is an established fact, declared by the medical science a long time ago, that for about nine months there is human life in a woman’s womb. There are only some doubts, still, by some about precisley when human life begins in the womb.

In its proactive and practical approach the MUCM’s concerns are about:

1. all the 4000 unborn children, every year at present, in the Maltese Islands,

all the 200 million unborn children, every year at present, all over the world.

2. They are not only about the smaller number of millions of abortions every year at present all over the world.

Specifically the concerns of the MUCM are :

1. The right of the unborn child to life as a human being.

2. The protection of the unborn child from harm caused by the consumprion of alcohol, drugs and tobacco by the parents of the unborn child before or during pregnancy (See DVD attachment – Send Whole Script )

1. A video - When your Unborn Child is on Drugs, Alcohol or Tobacco - distributed by the Churchill Foundation in USA - explains the dangers to the unborn child when a pregnant women smokes, drinks or uses any kind of drugs. Several mothers, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, look back in horror at what their substance use did to their children.

“Animation illustrates how drugs, alcohol and tobacco adversely affect the development of the fetus at each month of pregnancy, while emotional interviews with parents show the long-term psychological behavioural problems.” See whole script as attachment

2. William Chambless, development director of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Washington, D.C. says that millions of dollars in research has not found a level of alcohol that is safe for an unborn child. "There are tens of thousands of kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) who drank in the womb," he said, "because they couldn't say '`no' when Mom picked up the bottle."

3 The protection of the unborn child from the harmful effects of toxic substances at the places of work which both parents of the unborn child may be exposed to immediately before, and during, pregnancy.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association in a 1999 publication pregnant women who are exposed in their jobs to organic solvents such as those used in the computer chip industry have 13-times greater risk of major malformations in their babies and an increased risks for miscarriages, than women who are not exposed to solvents.

According to the Birth Defects and Semiconductor Chip Manafacturing Legal Centre of One Boston Place, 36th Floor, Boston Massachusetts 02018 1-800-632-8400 if you were a preganant woman (or exposed prior to childbearing) or a man who worked in a clean room in a computer or semiconductor chip plant and used or were exposed to solvents such as photoresist, gases, or metals including arsenic or other hazardous chemicals you may have a miscarriage or a child born with certain birth defects like those associated with the central nervous system or have neural tube defects, including spina bifida, or hydrocephalus or fluid in the brian or other birth defects such as cleft lip and cleft palate, or certian types of of cardiac and digestive organ defects such as hypoplastic or underdeveloped heart.

On the 8th Sept, 2005 the UK Daily Mail reported in its front page that research had revealed that “babies in the womb were being exposed to cocktails of toxic chemicals and that their blood was swimming with dangerous compounds found in everyday household cleaners, perfumes and even pans and furniture”.

4. The protection of the unborn child from the risks of birth defects as a result of obesity during pregancy, and other conditions and practices during pregnancy.

1. Dr Waller and associates at the University of Texas in Houston USA pulled data for births between 1997 and 2002 on over 10,000 babies born with birth defects and compared them with some 4000 norml babies. The team found that maternal obesity doubled the likelihood that the baby would have spina bifida. According to the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adoloscent Medicine other increased risks linked to the mother’s pre-pregnancy obesity were defects involving the heart, anus, penis, limbs, diaphram and navel.

5. The wholesome development of the unborn child.

1. In his book - The Secret Life of the Unborn Child - Dr Thomas Verny, psychiatrist, family therapist and father, says - “By creating a warm, emotionally enriching environment in utero, a woman can make a decisive difference in everything her child feels, hopes, dreams, thinks, and accomplishes throughout life.”

2. Dr. Philip Camilleri, Consultant Oncologist at Northampton General Hospital in UK, writing in the Sunday Times of Malta on 10-12-05 about exhaust fumes and their link to cancer declared... “the most striking association I have come across is the link between the incidence of childhood acute leukemia and the parental exposure to exhaust fumes around the time of conception, as a result of damage to the sperm DNA.” He urged the powers-that-be to think before routing large volumes of traffic through residentail areas.

3. “Gas emissions causing childhood cancers” reported the UK Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health in December 2005. Research had shown that gas emissions were the main cause of the incidence of childhood cancers. The author of the report recommended that future research into the causes of cancer in children should focus on environmental exposure in the womb as well as during childhood. According to the same report the findings of the UK report were backed by ongoing research focused on babies in the womb in the USA.

4. In her paper about maternal anxiety during pregnancy during the National Conference in Malta, on December 3rd, 2004, on the Well-Being of the Unborn Child by the Malta Union of Psychologists and the Malta Unborn Child Movement, Professor Bea R.H. Van den Bergh of the University of Louvain in Belgium stated that hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that maternal state anxiety during pregnancy explained 22%, 15%, and 9% of the variance in cross-situational attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, externalizing problems, and self-report anxiety, respectively, even after controlling for child’s gender, parents’ educational level, smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, and postnatal maternal anxiety

The MUCM notes that recently the EU Commission exchanged considerations on the unborn child with the Nicaraguan Government.

Considering the above the MUCM, inspired and encouraged by :

1. the fact that the vast majority of Maltese citizens persistently supports Maltese legislation of more than one hundred years that protects the unborn child;

2. the fact that in 2003 the Maltese Parliament unanimously enacted new legislation authorising and empowering the new Commissioner for Children to promote and defend the overall interests of the child “ before and after birth”;

3. the fact that the Maltese Parliament further strenghtened the protection of the unborn child by the enactment, in a unanimous manner, in 2005, of the new Law on Domestic Violence which includes the unborn child “as a member of the household” for protection from domestic violence;

contends that the unborn child also has rights for a secure childhood in utero, its first world, its first environment, and that this should be reflected and actualised in EU laws, including EU laws on the environment and sustainable development.

Therefore, within the spirit, and letter, of the Malta Charter on the Unborn Child which was forwarded in digital form to your Directorate in 2006, and which you very generously acknowledged, and the spirit, and letter, of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the Malta Unborn Child Movement, made up of 43 national organisations, highly recommends to the EU Commission that, in the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, it includes also the unborn child in its deliberations, and in its final conclusions makes provisions for the rights of the unborn child for life, good health, protection from physical, mental and emotional harm and opportunity for wholesome development.

As a civil society organization in Malta, one of the Member States of the EU, the Malta Unborn Child Movement is hereby:

1. taking an active part in the development of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child by the Malta Charter on the Unborn Child, and the above contribution;

2. feeling it is contributing towards its success,

3. requesting the EU Commission to further support the efforts of the MUCM in this field.

This, in conformity with the EU Commission’s declaration and requests in the Conclusions of its 4-7-2006 Communication on the Strategy on the Rights of the Child.

The MUCM appreciates very much to be informed, along the way, of inclusions about the unborn child in the proposed EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child.

Thank you very much for your attention, support, cooperation and collaboration.

Best regards.

Tony Mifsud

Coordinator

Malta Unborn Child Movement

Mob 00356 7920 4840

c.c.

The President of the Republic of Malta

The Prime Minister of Malta

The Leader of the Opposition - Maltese Parliament

The Deputy Prime Minister of Malta

The Minister of Foreign Affairs - Malta