Constitution ‘fails to protect children’

Evelyn Ring

National director of Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) Mary Flaherty said the courts were regularly sending children back into risky family situations.

Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said the current position of children in the Constitution was a matter of concern. In her submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, Ms Logan said the welfare of the child must be safeguarded.

Anyone under the age of 18 must have the opportunity to be heard in legal or administrative issues affecting them, she insisted.

Ms Logan said Article 41 of the Constitution lacked child focus and established a level of privacy within family life which the State could only enter in exceptional circumstances.

Ms Flaherty said the Constitution was unbalanced and agreed with Ms Logan that it should be amended to give greater protection to the rights of minors. “As long as children are seen as members of a family unit without individual rights they will continue to be left in vulnerable situations.”

In particular, Ms Logan has asked the committee to consider incorporating a broad statement of children’s rights that would reflect the ethos of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

While Ireland ratified the convention in September 1992, it does not form part of domestic law, which is framed by the Constitution.

Acting chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance Maria Corbett said they welcomed Ms Logan’s submission. She said that the Constitutional Review Group had made a similar recommendation in 1996 but nothing had come of it.

Without such constitutional reform the Ombudsman would always have difficulty in fulfilling its role to promote and protect the rights of children, she said.

Chief executive of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Paul Gilligan said the Kilkenny Incest Investigation clearly stated in 1993 that the Constitution needed to be reviewed so as to include an express statement of children’s rights.

“We would just like to say that we support the Ombudsman’s call,” he said. Ms Logan said there were hundreds of children living in ‘at risk’ situations. Most children grow up in very warm, loving environments.

“However, some children don’t and it is these children that this submission addresses,” she said. “It is not about interfering with parental autonomy or the right of any parent to bring up their child.

“We are talking specifically about protecting very vulnerable children.”