‘Dark clouds’ over rights of children

The Children’s Rights Alliance has urged a UN committee which will review Ireland’s record on children to make recommendations, including urging a ban on corporal punishment and a review of the gardaí’s Pulse system.

Are We There Yet? is the Children’s Rights Alliance’s third and fourth combined Parallel Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. It comes ahead of the committee’s review of Ireland’s children’s rights record in January 2016 — the first such review in 10 years.

In the foreword to the report, the alliance chief executive Tanya Ward said much had changed for the better for children’s rights and welfare since 2006 but “sadly, some large and very dark clouds hang over this happy picture”.