Madam, – I attended Amnesty International Pride Lecture in Belfast on July 28th, and heard with interest Colm O’Gorman’s views on the Civil Partnership Bill. One of the issues highlighted by Mr O’Gorman (executive director of Amnesty’s Irish section) and a number of other organisations including Marriage Equality was the discrepancy between the provisions of the Republic’s Civil Partnership Bill and the legislation introducing civil partnerships into Northern Ireland.
There are a number of key areas that the Irish Bill fails to adequately address, including taxation issues, pension entitlements and the situation of children who are being parented in civil partnerships. Mr John Waters’s argument (Opinion, July 31st) seems to be that Amnesty International should not weigh into the debate on the Civil Partnership Bill on the basis that there are more pressing issues on which it should focus – this is a curious argument to make.
Merely because Amnesty chose not to dedicate its “pride week” lecture to the plight of unmarried fathers should not result in condemnation of that lecture being focused on another pressing and important human rights issue.
While Mr Waters may object to the invocation of children within this debate, there are clear issues regarding the status of children who are being parented in same-sex relationships, of whom there are already many. It is also true to say that children being parented by non-marital heterosexuals face similar institutional and structural discrimination, therefore further legislative and constitutional protection for children is required.
These are all “rights” issues, which a rights-based organisation or anyone interested in equality should have an interest in addressing. – Yours, etc,