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Ireland needs to tackle ‘stark gap' between ‘rhetoric and reality' of children's rights, says child protection rapporteur
A specialist children's legal service could contribute to closing the 'stark gap' between the 'rhetoric and reality' of children's rights here,
Ireland
's child protection rapporteur has said.
Rights should be more than 'lofty principles on paper', they must be 'practical and effective', said
Caoilfhoinn Gallagher
.
She was addressing an event in
Dublin
marking the publication of a new report by independent law centre Community Law & Mediation, which analysed the legal needs of children and young people and set out recommendations on how best to achieve those.
Several State and non-State stakeholders, including the Ombudsman for Children's Office, Legal Aid Board and Children's Rights Alliance, were among those consulted for the report.
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It particularly prioritised consultations with children and young people who had first-hand experience of legal issues. The difficulties they highlighted included school and family problems, bullying, discrimination, stigma based on 'being from a place that everyone thinks the worst of', mental health and having supports cut off after the age of 18
The report's key recommendation is for the establishment of a specialist children's legal service here with a particular focus on the practice and promotion of child-friendly justice.
It recommends that priorities within the Child Poverty Unit of the Department of the Taoiseach and in the National Policy Framework Young Ireland should be reviewed to ensure commitments in relation to children's rights include an access to justice component.
In her address, Ms Gallagher said former taoiseach Leo Varadkar had said he wanted Ireland to be the best country in Europe to be a child and the government's 2019 children and youth policy was aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people.
That 'ambitious vision' is to be welcomed, she said, adding that she acknowledged and supported many key steps taken in recent years to improve systems, frameworks and outcomes for children.
However, she said there remain 'significant and persistent and grave' concerns about child protection and the realisation of child rights in several areas.
The aspiration to make Ireland the best place in the world to be a child was likely 'to ring hollow' for many, including the family of teenager Daniel McAnaspie, who was in the care of the State when he was stabbed to death in 2010.
An inquest jury last month found he was unlawfully killed and his family have called for a State apology for systemic failures in his care.
It was, she suspected, also likely to ring hollow for High Court judge John Jordan who presides weekly over the secure care list and recently described the continual failure of Tusla to provide enough beds for at risk children as 'an affront to the rule of law'.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child had in 2023 set out six areas where Ireland should take 'urgent' steps, including non-discrimination, violence against children and mental health, she noted.
The CLM report is a 'vital' contribution to the important discussion about the gap between rhetoric and reality and how to close that gap, she said.
Law professor and child rights expert Conor O'Mahony said litigation has limits and is not normally the place where people want to start when it comes to children's rights but it is 'sometimes the only way to get things done'.
He said the 2012 'quite timid' children's rights amendment to the Constitution created a charter under which the courts might do 'interesting things' in relation to children's rights but the courts had 'not really embraced that licence' in the years since.
Nothing in the Constitution states that the separation of powers between the legislature and the judiciary is more important than the rights of children but the courts have tended to prioritise the former over the latter, he said.
