Forced marriages shouldn’t be addressed through access to abortion - Zammit Dimech

17.05.2018 9:42

Forced marriages shouldn’t be addressed through access to abortion - Zammit Dimech

Important notice
Views expressed here are the views of the national delegation and do not always reflect the views of the group as a whole
Translation
This content is also available in:

“If we really want to strengthen the fight against forced marriages, we should enhance education, women empowerment and victim support rather than pushing forward access for abortion.” MEP Francis Zammit Dimech said this after a vote taken within the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament, in which Zammit Dimech is a member.

Francis Zammit Dimech, who was the rapporteur on behalf of the EPP Group, said that forced marriages leave an impact on both male and female kids, and this goes against fundamental rights and children’s dignity. He added that forced marriages was a from of violence. He said that the EU should play an important role in the fight against such bad practices. In this regard, he made a request for the EU, and its Member States, to cooperate with competent authorities, including judicial systems in third countries, to provide training and technical assistance to adopt and enforced legislation which prohibits early and forced marriages.

He insisted that although he remains in favour of various positive proposals within the report which should lead to a stronger fight against forced messages - including proposals put forward by himself - he voted against the final report since amendments which call for access to abortion have been adopted. He said that just like Partit Nazzjonalista in Malta is committing itself to safeguard life with a clear position against embryo freezing, he will be doing the same in the European Parliament to safeguard life in all its forms.

Note to editors

The EPP Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 219 Members from 28 Member States

Other related content