A UN committee has been called out for disregarding the will of the Irish people to honour the contribution of stay-at-home mothers.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has shocked observers by recommending a rerun of last year’s referendum in which voters chose to retain wording in the Irish Constitution that recognises “the mother’s particular role and gift to Irish society”. Almost 75 per cent voted against a proposal to delete it.
The Committee’s members are not democratically elected, and its reports are not binding on UN member states, but in 2019, a report by CEDAW was used to justify Westminster’s imposition of abortion across Northern Ireland. The country now has the most liberal abortion law in the UK, with abortion allowed up to 12 weeks without having to give a reason – including sex-selective abortion.
‘Elitist arrogance’
Senator Mullen said that the people rejected the removal of the word ‘mother’ not because of a harmful belief that women should be “chained to the sink at home”, but “because they value the work done by mothers and fathers in the home”.
He added: “What does it say about the arrogance and disconnection of self-appointed, or almost self-appointed, supposed human rights experts that their response to a decision by the Irish people about their Constitution is to say that they made the wrong decision and we should see how it could be run again?
“What would it say about our Government if it were to give any respect to that kind of proposal? This is the kind of elitist arrogance that brings the UN into disrepute”.
The Independent Senator urged his colleagues: “Let us be done with the arrogance of that UN committee”.
Undervalued
In the weeks prior to the vote, research revealed that almost seven in ten mothers would choose to stay at home to look after dependent children instead of engaging in work outside the home.
A survey by Amárach Research for the Iona Institute found 69 per cent of mothers with children under the age of 18 would prefer to stay at home with their children rather than go out to work if they could afford it.
Amárach, which surveyed 500 women over the age of 18, also found that 76 per cent feel that women who work in the home are undervalued by society compared to women who work outside the home, and 71 per cent do not feel valued by society for their work as mothers.
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