Children's alliance urges referendum on rights

REFERENDUM FATIGUE after the Lisbon Treaty defeat should not be allowed to override the compelling need for a constitutional amendment to strengthen children’s rights, a coalition of lobby groups has said.

In an open letter to Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday, the Children’s Rights Alliance raised concern over indications from Minister for Children Barry Andrews this week that the Government may introduce new laws on child protection instead of holding a referendum.

The Government had pledged to hold a plebiscite following the striking down of the offence of statutory rape by the courts two years ago.

Jillian van Turnhout, the alliance’s chief executive, said the Minister’s comments marked a significant departure from commitments given by Government over the past 10 years.

She believed constitutional change was necessary to recognise children as individual rights-holders and to ensure that the judiciary and the legislature based their decisions relating to children on the “best interests of the child” principle.

“There are many compelling reasons for a constitutional amendment,” she continued. “Childhood does not stand still while adults argue for over 10 years on the merits of changing the Constitution.

“The alliance is fully aware that following the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty referendum, another referendum holds little attraction for the Government, but to put this factor above the rights and needs of 1,036,034 children in Ireland is not acceptable.”

Mr Andrews said this week that a range of legislative options which may not need a change to the Constitution was being explored. These include laws which could allow for the sharing of “soft information” relating to suspected sex offenders, which could protect young people from sexual assault and could protect young rape victims from adversarial cross-examination.

Mr Andrews said there was now a “general consensus” that many of these issues could be dealt with by way of legislation.

However no formal decision has been made yet over whether a plebiscite will be held. An all-party Oireachtas committee chaired by Mary O’Rourke TD will make recommendations to Government on the issue later this year.

However, Ms Van Turnhout, whose group represents more than 80 organisations, said: “While we welcome and congratulate the Government for exploring all options, including legislative proposals on child protection issues, constitutional change to strengthen children’s rights is non-negotiable.”