Rights groups welcome ‘blueprint for action’

A CRITICAL United Nations report that has laid out specific targets for the Government to improve its record in children’s rights has been welcomed by campaigners and the Ombudsman for Children.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released its progress report yesterday listing a number of concerns it holds on Ireland’s children’s policy.

In two-and-a-half years the Government will have to report back to the committee. In the meantime it has been asked to change the Constitution and invest heavily in support services.

It must also significantly strengthen the office of the Ombudsman for Children to allow it to investigate teenage detention centres and children in garda custody.

The committee had expressed concern that the Government had limited the power of Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan and had compromised the office by not channelling its funding directly from the Department of Finance.

Ms Logan welcomed the detailed criticismslevelled at Ireland and she is looking forward to greater powers that will help changes to be brought about.

Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay felt the committee made a strong case for fundamental legal reform, but this was balanced by a number of changes that can implemented more quickly.

“The first step would be for the Oireachtas Committee (on Health and Children) to get hold of the UN recommendations and examine the specific areas that were dealt with and how they can be addressed. The minister has already committed himself to an audit of the Constitution in order to childproof it but that can only be done by putting the best interests of the child at the centre of it.”

The Children’s Rights Alliance described the report as a “blueprint for action over the next five years”.