Campaigners are planning to raise concerns over the Government's plans to introduce antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos) with a UN committee on children's rights later this year.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the State is obliged to compile progress reports towards implementing the international agreement at six-year intervals.
The Government has finalised its progress report, which is due to be submitted to a UN committee in Geneva shortly. The Irish Times has learned that Asbos are not mentioned in the report.
However, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are planning to raise Asbos as their chief concern in separate submissions to be sent to the UN in the coming months.
Members of the Children's Rights Alliance and other NGOs say the controversial measures flout a central provision of the convention which states that detention should be a measure of last resort.
Irish child law expert Geoffrey Shannon said raising the issue at Geneva could be embarrassing for the Government.
"These measures may be popular at domestic level. However, Ireland may face sanctions given that the principle of detention as a measure of last resort is at the centre of the convention," he said.
"Because Absos are a front-loaded provision, detention would be seen as measure of first resort rather than last resort."
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, however, said he had asked the Minister of State for Children, Brian Lenihan, to draw up plans to fully integrate Asbos into the Children's Act.
The Minister has also signalled that there will be a separate system of Asbos for adults and young people. Under new plans, children who breach the orders will receive less serious penalties, such as curfew orders, while an adult who breaches an Asbo runs the risk of a jail sentence.
Mr McDowell said existing legislative provisions were inadequate to deal effectively with anti-social behaviour and that communities needed greater protection.
The Government has taken criticism by the UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child seriously. In the last report, published in 1998, criticism about the lack of co-ordination in the delivery of childcare services led to the establishment of the National Children's Office and the Ombudsman for Children. Ombudsman Emily Logan has already expressed concern over the impact of Asbos on the Children's Act.
Aisling Reidy of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the introduction of Asbos would undo much of the progressive work undertaken by the Government in recent years.
"To go down this route, and roll back on a lot of the best provisions of the Children's Act, and introduce Asbos without any child-impact assessment, can only be viewed negatively."
