Abuse case ruling ‘raised the bar’ for child protection

The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in relation to child sex abuse survivor Louise O’Keeffe "raised the bar" for all child protection obligations placed on schools, a conference on cyberbullying heard yesterday.

Geoffrey Shannon, the special rapporteur on child protection, said it was not sufficient for a school to have an anti-bullying policy: That policy must be fully implemented.

In Ms O’Keeffe’s case, the European court had stated very clearly that the State had an obligation to protect children from degrading treatment and punishment and to take a proactive approach in this area.