van Turnhout on ‘The Time is Ripe for Children’s Rights Referendum’

You can learn more about Jillian van Turnhout on our guest contributors page.

The vision of the Children’s Rights Alliance is that Ireland will be one of the best places in the world to be a child. On 16 February 2010, the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children moved us that bit closer towards securing this vision, when it published its Final Report. Crucially, the Report includes all-party agreement on a proposed wording for a constitutional amendment to strengthen children’s rights and this, in itself, is a significant step forward.

A major stumbling block to realising our vision has always been the Irish Constitution – the fundamental law of the country. Written in 1937, at a time when children were ‘seen and not heard’ and where, for example, it was the norm for teachers to physically chastise children and for children to be seen as mere possessions of adults, it has become very outdated. A litany of reports, court cases, and inquiries, have, over the years, also highlighted the need for constitutional change for children.

Blog Carnival on the Proposed Child Rights Constitutional Amendment (Expressions of Interest)

On Friday 26 February, Human Rights in Ireland will host a mini Blog Carnival on the draft wording for a constitutional amendment on the child set out in the final report of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children.

Postings could take a number of different forms, including:

– Analyses of the draft wording in terms of its capacity to address current shortcomings in children’s rights protection under the constitutional framework. Topics of particular interest would include the implications of the draft wording for the realisation of children’s rights in areas such as child protection, adoption/guardianship, child poverty, refugee children, children in care and children in custody.

– Issues surrounding a forthcoming referendum on the draft wording. What forms are the various campaigns around any such referendum likely to take? What obstacles exist with regard to advancing or improving the wording as it stands? What factors will influence the ultimate outcome of such a referendum?

As well as relying on the in-house expertise of Human Rights in Ireland bloggers, those in the human rights, community, voluntary and other related sectors are invited to submit proposals for commentary that they may wish to make on the budget. Blog posts should be between 400-1,000 words (max).

Those interested are asked to contact me at aoife.nolan@qub.ac.uk (before noon 24 February 2010) so that a full Blog Programme can be ready to upload on 26 February.

Kennan and Landy on Budget 2010: Children’s Rights

You can learn more about Danielle Kennan and Fergal Landy on our guest contributors page.

Before reviewing the child specific impact of the 2010 budget it is important to take a whole child/whole system approach by highlighting the overall impact on low income families and the knock on effect this will have on children. TASC, an independent economic think tank, describes this budget as ‘particularly harsh for those struggling to survive on low incomes’, as ‘reinforcing inequality’ and delivering ‘cuts that will impact hardest on those at the bottom of Ireland’s incomes heap’. Over the coming weeks the potential impact of cuts on children that are not immediately evident require a comprehensive child impact assessment of this budget using the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a reference point.