Warnings from the EU stall the Slovak concordat
Human rights must trump Church doctrines, says report of European Union lawyers: medical professionals should not have an unlimited right to impose their beliefs on others by refusing to provide contraceptives, perform abortions, etc. — in cases where this effectively denied a patient access to a service or procedure which was allowed by law. It caused quite a stir in Slovakia when the EU experts said that this treaty with the Vatican could violate international human rights, and the concordat was put on ice.
Contents:
- In a nutshell: " 'Conscience Concordat 'discriminatory", Letter to Slovak Spectator, 16 January 2006,(follows below)
- A note on the importance of this report (follows below)
- Extracts from the report by EU human rights experts. This highlights Church strategy on concordats.
- Executive Summary (12-page PDF)
- Report by the EU Network of Independent Experts, Ref.: CFR-CDF.Opinion 4-2005 (41-page PDF)
"Conscience concordat" discriminatory
The [European Union] experts [...] discuss two areas where the "conscience concordat" clashes with human rights.
First, they assert that the sometimes competing claims of different human rights have to be balanced against each other. Thus, the right of a Catholic doctor not to have to perform an abortion must be balanced against the right of a woman to undergo a legally permitted procedure.
However, an article in a Catholic newspaper asserted that a doctor should not have any obligation to refer a woman to a colleague who would be willing to treat her as that is "an act which itself conflicts [with] conscientious objection".
Not much room for compromise there. The conscience of the doctor (or the pharmacist) is treated by the Church as absolute. Apparently no other rights matter.
Second, the conscience concordat conflicts with the human right not to be discriminated against. "Conscience" is defined by the concordat as only being scruples which accord with "the teaching of faith and morals of the Catholic Church".
Yet the conscience of even a good Catholic may at times conflict with some of the teachings of his church.
This concordat would mean that those who agreed with the official doctrine of the Church could act without any legal liability for damage they caused to the public, a privilege not granted to others. Furthermore, the experts argue, this might constitute discrimination against women, since only their healthcare is facing restrictions.
Muriel Fraser, London, UK, Slovak Spectator, 16 January 2006.
The importance of this report
As a result of the objections of the EU legal experts, the Slovak “conscience concordat” has been put aside for now. However, their report remains important for three reasons:
- This concordat will be back. It will return in some form as soon as the political climate is more favourable: --more favourable in Slovakia, (where in January 2007 the BBC bandwidth was given to Radiance Radio [Radio Lumen]) and also more favourable in the EU (the head of the EU Committee on Womens’ Rights is now a the rightwing Slovak whose father was ambassador to the Vatican.)
- This EU report gives valuable information about how concordats interact with the different legal systems of the European states. As “international treaties” they override constitutions in some countries and national laws in all of them.
- The report also shows a test run for the Vatican's new strategy for combating human rights. The Church is trying to elevate “conscience” (defined in the concordat as strictly Catholic scruples!) above other human rights. This can effectively prevent people in an overwhelmingly Catholic country from getting access to perfectly legal services of which the Church disapproves. It can work in countries like Slovakia, where the Church runs an increasing proportion of the social services. There a “conscience concordat”, operating through the “moral scruples” of people wanting to keep their jobs at the Church-run institutions – can, in practice, force Canon (Church) Law on the whole society.
