Sinister agenda behind children’s rights proposal

HERMANN KELLY exposed a little of the real agenda behind the so-called children’s rights referendum (Irish Examiner, March 9).

He astutely observed that “the Government desires to make it easier for State social workers to intervene in family life, and even place a child up for adoption if the State judges the parents to be morally incapable”. This is the sinister agenda behind the Government’s platitudes about “children’s rights”.

For example, Sweden has always been held up by children’s rights activists as an example of good practice. However, the Nordic Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) has shown how the Swedish government has waged war on the private family in favour of the state-controlled family. Under the guise of acting in the child’s “best interests”, the government has succeeded in divesting Swedish parents of their power and transferring it to the state.

The NCHR has exposed how thousands of Swedish children have been forcibly taken away from their parents and put in foster homes. This has happened despite Sweden having no real poverty and few real social problems.

The Irish “children’s rights” agenda is far from being in the best interests of the child.

Patrick McGinnity

Derrynoose

Keady

Co Armagh

Northern Ireland.