Madam, - I would like to commend Louise Holden on her article about the lack of legal protection for unmarried couples (Education & Parenting, May 13th).
I would add that the situation in which "unmarried" families have less protection than "married" families, is in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), a human rights treaty to which Ireland has been a party for over 50 years.
A decade ago, Ireland was held to violate the Convention in the case of Keegan v Ireland, brought by an unmarried father whose daughter was placed for adoption without his knowledge or consent. The Constitution failed to protect his rights as a father or even to recognise that he had any rights.
The European Convention on Human Rights, however, explicitly requires the non-discriminatory protection of family rights, and the concept of family is based on the nature of the relationship between the individuals, not the marital or other status of the couple. The inequality that exists between the protections enjoyed by married and unmarried couples in Ireland constitutes a failure to protect the rights of the family as required by the ECHR.
The ECHR is due to become part of Irish law in the near future (Ireland is the only state left in the Council of Europe where the ECHR is not part of domestic law) and this area is one of many that will need reform to bring our laws into compliance with the convention. This is an issue for our legislators to put right rather than waiting for the courts - either here or in Strasbourg - to force their hand.
In 1987 the step was finally taken to remedy the then "second-class" citizenship forced on children of unmarried couples. The steps to remedy the "second-class" family rights of unmarried couples are long overdue. The failure to take them is a continuing violation of our human rights obligations. - Yours, etc.,
AISLING REIDY, Director, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Lower Dominick Street, Dublin 1.