Press release

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

Ireland’s leading rights watchdog, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has today (16 February 2010) called on the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews, T.D., to “unequivocally endorse” the child rights proposals produced by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children.

Reacting to the proposed new wording of Article 42 of the Constitution, ICCL Director Mr. Mark Kelly said:
“The Committee’s recommendations finally provide recognition at a Constitutional level that children are not mini human beings with mini human rights. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties calls upon Minister Andrews to prove that the State intends to cherish all children equally by unequivocally endorsing the Committee’s proposed wording and pledging to hold a referendum based upon it at the earliest opportunity”.

Addressing the substance of the published wording, Mr. Kelly added:

“The ICCL particularly welcomes the recognition the Oireachtas Joint Committee has given to core principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the ‘best interests’ principle, the right of a child’s voice to be heard in judicial and administrative proceedings, and the absence of discrimination based on the marital status of a child’s parents. This wording represents a considerable advance over the deeply flawed proposals on child protection produced by the Government in 2007.”

ENDS/

Mark Kelly is available for interview and further comment.

For more information, please contact:
Walter Jayawardene
Campaigns and Communications Officer
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
9-13 Blackhall Place
Dublin 7
Ireland

Tel. + 353 1 799 4504
Mob: +353 87 9981574
 
E-mail: walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie

Note to editors:
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children has today published its Final Report on the Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Children’s Rights, which includes wording for a proposed new Article 42 of the Constitution.

More than three years ago, in November 2006, the Government announced its intention to hold a constitutional referendum on children.  In February 2007, the Government first published wording of a constitutional amendment on children, in the form of the Twenty-Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2007. The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children was established in November 2007 in order to consider whether the wording proposed by the Government was fit for purpose.

The wording for a proposed new Article 42 of the Constitution which has been proposed by the Joint Committee significantly enhances the text originally presented by the Government in 2007 by giving recognition to core principles set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Irish Government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on 30 September 1990 and ratified it on 28 September 1992.