Children must not be a casualty of short-sighted Brexit

Tanya Ward says it is in the best interests of all children for Britain to stay within an EU-wide common child protection system.

Since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, a generation of children have grown up in the border counties without a physical and psychological border. A generation has been born, north and south, that did not experience the human rights atrocities of the troubles. This is the success of the Good Friday Agreement.

But how many of us today know what is in the Good Friday Agreement? And why is it relevant for us in the current Brexit talks betwen Britain and the European Union. And what does it mean for children?

Brexit poses a significant threat to children on this island, north and south.

Child poverty rates are likely to increase on both sides of the border. Children in Ireland and in Northern Ireland already have among the highest rates of child poverty in the EU.

The economic shock to the common market that will arise from the hard Brexit that British prime minister Theresa May has now confirmed will almost certainly plunge children further into poverty — unless both administrations place tackling child poverty at the heart of negotiations.

EU laws provide practical ways to tackle cross-border child protection issues and crimes committed against children. So, for example, if someone views images of child abuse somewhere in Britain and it’s discovered that the child is in Ireland, EU law allows British police services to exchange that information with the gardaí.

If an unaccompanied refugee child arrives in Dublin and it is discovered that they have a family member in Belfast, EU law allows for that child to be transferred there.

European Union law also deals with international child abduction, trafficking of children across borders and complex aspects of family law.

It is in the best interests of all children for Britain to stay within an EU-wide common child protection system. Ms May says the partial membership of the EU is not on the cards. So that now seems unlikely.

An agreement, either between Britain and the EU, or at the very least between Ireland and Britain, is necessary to close all loopholes in our child protection systems. We now need to start the painstaking work in identifying each and every scenario where children may be at risk.

The Children’s Rights Alliance presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement last week. In our advice, we raised the spectre of peace and prosperity unravelling on the island of Ireland if the Good Friday Agreement is not respected by the British government and the EU as a whole.

Threats by Ms May to withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights is of utmost concern. The convention is the common thread that runs through the Good Friday Agreement.

It is the basis for policing and institutional reforms. It resulted in Britain enacting the Human Rights Act and the Irish Government enacting the European Convention on Human Rights Act. It gave us faith that the human rights abuses that were so prevalent in the North could never happen again.

And it is precisely at this point when we have political instability that human rights are most important.

The Good Friday Agreement could be our way of minimising the potential harm caused to children from Brexit. It requires the EU member states and the British and Irish governments to treat the North as ‘a special case’.

The Good Friday Agreement recognises the right of people in the North to hold Irish citizenship and by extension EU citizenship. A hard Brexit cannot rob them of this right.

But what about children with Irish nationality living in Britain and children with British nationality living in Ireland? More than 100,000 British citizens live in Ireland. There are more than 300,000 Irish citizens living in Britain.

How will their children be affected by a hard Brexit? Is their ability to access services such as education and healthcare going to be at risk? What will happen to the children sent south to Ireland from the North for medical treatment?

What will happen to Traveller children moving with their families between Ireland and Britain? There is no doubt that the Common Travel Area needs to be preserved for the rights of children in both countries protected.

We have to take Brexit seriously. We have to consider the real threat to the Good Friday Agreement. We cannot take our peace on the island of Ireland for granted. Children are squarely on the agenda of Government and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, but we need a much greater effort to fight for children and young people. We need to hear their voices directly.

Our human rights institutions, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Ombudsman for Children, and their ability to work with bodies over the border and across the water will be important here. We need to unite with children’s rights activists across the EU to name the issues for children.

Poverty, child protection loopholes, harsh border controls, and human rights cannot be a casualty of Brexit. Children must be at the heart of the Brexit negotiations.

• Tanya Ward, is chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance