Children's rights separate from those of the family must be enshrined in the Constitution, a former Supreme Court judge has said.
Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, who is now President of the Law Reform Commission, said that under current Constitutional arrangements children's rights are inextricably linked with those of the family.
"For those of us who have the good fortune to live in stable, happy married families it is easy to feel that an unbreakable link between the rights of the family and the rights of children is automatically the way things are and should always be," she said.
But for children who do not necessarily benefit from this privileged background, she said, there is a need for them to have rights of their own and "this includes, as set out in the UN Convention, a right to a voice of their own in matters that affect them".
Justice McGuinness was speaking at the launch of children's charity Barnardos campaign to have the Constitution changed to include a separate wording relating to children's rights.
Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said there was a need for informed and calm debate on the issues that impact on children's lives and not just those being proposed for change in the Constitution but others that impact on the quality of children's lives such as health and education.
Mr Finlay cited a recent ESRI study which revealed that among the world's richest countries, there are only four countries with a higher rate of poverty among children than Ireland.
He said: "These are startling figures, made all the more so by the fact that there are almost no countries in any of these league tables that can now boast the same wealth on a per capita basis".
"It is vital, therefore, that the debate that lies ahead, on the rights and needs of children, should take account of the broader picture.
We need to give children a place and a voice in the development of public policy as a whole, and not just in relation to very particular areas," he said.
Mr Finlay said the issue of child poverty cannot be addressed through the Constitution, but neither can it be addressed it if those responsible for health, education, housing, and family incomes policies are not fully alive to the rights and needs of children.
"Natural and imprescriptible rights might not mean a lot when they are first published. They must come to mean more through public debate and understanding," he said.
A senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University College Cork, Dr Ursula Kilkelly said Ireland now had the opportunity to set itself apart internationally, by leading the way in children's rights protection at a constitutional level.
