BEFLAST, April 10, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amnesty International and a Northern Irish homosexualist campaign group, Rainbow Project, have announced plans to collaborate in an effort to create legalised gay “marriage” in the province through the courts.
The two groups have vowed to bring a human rights legal action against the Northern Ireland government “on the basis of inferior treatment of same sex couples in Northern Ireland with regards to the right to marry and found a family.”
As with the 1967 Abortion Act, Northern Ireland would be exempt from Westminster’s same-sex “marriage” bill that was passed in the House of Commons in February but is still in committee in the House of Lords.
Patrick Corrigan, program director for Amnesty in Northern Ireland, told the Guardian newspaper that a lawsuit is “inevitable” because international law is “clear” that individual territories must provide marriage if the rest of the country does.
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So far, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Alliance and Green parties support the redefinition of marriage, but the Ulster Unionists and Democratic Unionists remain opposed. In October last year, a motion brought forward by Sinn Féin and the Green Party to redefine marriage was defeated in a close vote in the Assembly, 50 votes to 45.
At that time, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said there is “no widespread demand across society for the kind of changes which are being asked for in this motion”. Wilson also warned that a change in the law would threaten religious freedoms as they have in the rest of the UK, “for example, church youth groups could be banned from using council facilities”.
“I am opposed to gay marriage,” Wilson said, “I would have no intention of bringing forward any legislation to this House to facilitate gay marriage and I believe that in doing that I do reflect what is the general view in this society in Northern Ireland.”
Rainbow Project spokesman Gavin Boyd, said, “As long as there exists a legal inequality between Northern Ireland and Britain, there will be legal challenges. That has been the route that has been most successful in the past.”
In most of the jurisdictions where gay “marriage” has been installed around the world, activists have brought it in only by carefully circumnavigating the democratic process and turning to unelected jurists. While there has been much speculation over the reasons for UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s sudden push for redefining marriage, at least one theory holds that it was in response to fears that the European Court of Human Rights would shortly impose it by judicial fiat.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the burgeoning United Kingdom Independence Party, said that with the British coalition government already facing a growing crisis of authority over Britain’s relationship with Europe, Cameron could not afford the loss of face if a European court forced the change. UKIP is the only leading British political party specifically to oppose the move on principle, saying it will erode the rights of freedom of religious expression for millions of Christian believers.
In 2007, Amnesty International revealed its pro-abortion colours by declaring that legalised abortion is a “human right.” The group has campaigned aggressively since then against countries that retain legal protections for the unborn.