Certain fundamental human rights were not being respected by the Church Tribunal to the detriment of the parties concerned, the Divorce Movement said this morning.

Deborah Schembri, who heads the movement, told a news conference held in Gozo that one such right was that to be represented by a lawyer of your choice.

Dr Schembri revealed last week that she has been banned from representing clients seeking marriage annulment before the tribunal.

As the Church's annulment decisions had to be recognised by the state, the church should follow procedures which safeguarded fundamental human rights, she said.

Dr Schembri referred to a European Court of Human Rights judgement which had  stated that although it did not have any intention to go into the merit of whether or not the Church should adopt procedures which conformed to human rights, if its tribunal was serving judgements which had to be recognised by the state, the state had the duty to ensure that such rights were safeguarded.

Dr Schembri condemned what she termed as the "deceitful campaign by those against divorce". Specific reference was made to the billboard which stated ihaxxnu buthom (fattening their pockets).

"This is a specific reference to me and to my colleagues implying that we would be earning extraordinary amounts from the introduction of divorce. This is not the case. If divorce is introduced, lawyers would help clients in divorce rather than annulment proceedings," she said.