Children’s groups welcome proposed Constitutional amendment

THERE was a broad welcome for the proposed constitutional amendment enshrining the rights of the child yesterday.

Child law expert Dr Ursula Kilkelly, of UCC’s Law Faculty said the proposed change to the Constitution had the potential to be hugely significant and had been “tightly worded”. “It would appear to be setting down a new benchmark for how the State treats children,” Dr Kilkelly said.

The wording also had the potential to impact on areas such as migration, she said, in that the stress on the rights of the child would now have to be taken into account in cases where, for example, an Irish-born child’s mother has been deported.

“It has the potential to reorientate the decision -making [process] and recast the framework within which those decisions are made,” she said.

Several groups welcomed the report including Barnardos, CARI, the Children’s Rights Alliance, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, ISPCC, One In Four, and the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland. They said a referendum was now needed to ensure Ireland became an international model for respecting the rights of children.

The Children’s Rights Alliance welcomed the publication of the committee’s report but stressed the Government needed to set a date for a referendum on the issue soon.

CRA chief executive Jillian Van Turnhout, said: “We must not let this report gather dust on a shelf. Progress to date in relation to the previous two reports of the committee has been unacceptably slow.”

The CRA will now hold a consultation meeting with its 90 member organisations to review the committee’s report and proposed wording.

Director of the Iona Institute David Quinn, said the proposed wording needed to be studied and said it would be worrying if it meant more power in the hands of the State when it came to children.

“We would be extremely concerned if this wording, while purporting to protect children, in fact gives the state more power of intervention in families than is required,” he said.

“Will the new wording mean in too many cases, third parties such as social workers will, in fact, be preferred over parents?”

Amnesty International executive director Colm O’Gorman, said: “The publication of the report and the proposed wording must put children’s rights at the centre of the political debate in this country.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) also called on the Government to “unequivocally endorse” the proposed wording.

ICCL director Mark Kelly, said: “The committee’s recommendations finally provide recognition at a constitutional level that children are not mini human beings with mini human rights.”