4.2. Protection Before and After Birth

31. Article 3 of the 1948 Declaration states that "Everyone has the right to life". This principle was developed by the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1959, whereby "a child, because of its lack of physical and mental maturity, requires special protection and care, including due legal protection both before and after birth". This same statement was later incorporated into the "Preamble" of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989.

32. This should be considered a fundamental principle of the system of international protection of human rights (ius cogens ³⁶) since it is undoubtedly incorporated into the common conscience of the subjects of the international community.

33. International Law thereby affirms a principle of the Roman-canonical juridical tradition whereby the unborn human individual exists as a person. The rights of the unborn and their personality were already formulated by Ulpian, Justinian, Gratian and other teachers of law since ancient times. Judaic, Christian and Moslem thought converge along these lines.

34. On the other hand, any legislative attempt that presumes to encourage the "right" to abortion or other forms of negating unborn life clashes with what has matured in international legislation. Such legislation is called upon to coherently "guarantee to the unborn the right to come into the world, in the same way to protect the newly born, especially girls, from the crime of infanticide; ...to assure the handicapped that they can fully develop their capacities, and ensure adequate care for the sick and the elderly".³⁷