Publications

Office Law Reform# consultation paper on divorce in NI

As the paper is primarily concerned with an important issue of social policy this
Commission clearly has an interest in ensuring that whatever recommendations it
contains are consistent with internationally accepted rules and principles for the
protection of human rights. We are therefore pleased to see that on pages 27-28 and
60 some of the pertinent human rights standards are adverted to. Having considered
those standards and the minimal jurisprudence which has developed around them in
international courts and committees, we are satisfied that the draft recommendations
contained in the Consultation Paper do not violate them. We have also considered the
UN’s Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1979),
especially Article 16, and the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),
especially Articles 9, 18 and 27, but again we do not see anything there to undermine
the recommendations in this report. We are continuing to press the UK government
to hasten its efforts to reform its matrimonial law so that it will be able to ratify
Protocol 7 of the European Convention.

office-of-law-reforms-consultation-paper-on-divorce-in-northern-ireland-april-2000.pdf