After a ten year gap, in January an international spotlight was once again shone on Ireland’s record on children’s rights by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of 18 independent experts who meet in Geneva, Switzerland. The State examination took place on 14 January 2016 and the Committee issued its findings and recommendations, known as Concluding Observations, on 4 February.
The Children’s Rights Alliance and its members worked intensely over that past three years to ensure this UN examination would be an effective lever to strengthen children’s rights in Ireland. We co-ordinated our members to provide feedback on the draft State Report and, following national consultations in 2014 and 2015, developed a comprehensive civil society Parallel Report Are We There Yet?. Along with UNICEF Ireland, we facilitated children and young to develop their own report to the UN, entitled Picture Your Rights. In June 2015, we travelled to Geneva for a pre-sessional hearing with the UN Committee and also supported five young people to travel with us to engage in a separate meeting with the Committee.
In December 2015, we made a follow-up submission containing updates and new information, and in January 2016, we led a delegation of over 20 representatives from a wide range of members to attend the examination. We were very fortunate to be able to arrange a pre-meeting with the Committee the day before the examination, we focused our inputs on four critical areas – poverty/homelessness, mental health, religious discrimination in schools and children living in direct provision. It was hugely gratifying during the examination to see the Committee members clearly drawing from and quoting our material.
The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr. James Reilly TD, and officials from 7 different government departments represented the State at the examination. The Committee also received submissions and presentations from the Ombudsman for Children and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
We focused our advocacy efforts in the lead up to the exanimation on issues that are hard to get movement on at national level, where external pressure can help break a log-jam. Our hard work has already paid dividends with a number of vital reforms being delivered for children. In preparation for the January examination, the Government removed the defence of reasonable chastisement in relation to corporal punishment that had been in place since 1860; raised the child component of the direct provision payment for the first time in 16 years; begun to tackle child protection referral waiting lists; and on the day the Concluding Observations were published, committed in principle to allow asylum-seeking children living in direct provision to have their complaints independently examined by the Ombudsman for Children. The examination helped deliver these changes, which will have a real and positive impact on the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in Ireland.
The UN Committee quite rightly recognised that the Government has put in place essential infrastructure to protect the rights of children – amending the Constitution, introducing a national policy framework for children (Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures), establishing Tusla - the Child and Family Agency, and reforming our family law. Of particular note given the General Election, the Committee praised the fact that Ireland has a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs with full Cabinet status – a major milestone which should be maintained under the next government.
However, the message from the UN – which is shared by the Children’s Rights Alliance – is that there’s still work to be done. Where Ireland is found most wanting is in the area of support for vulnerable and marginalised children, including children with disabilities and those in the care system. The UN Committee expressed ‘deep concern’ about the number of Traveller children with no access to adequate water and sanitation and called for a new strategy to address racism. They also decried the fact that families affected by homelessness are ‘facing significant delays in accessing social housing and frequently living in inappropriate, temporary or emergency accommodation on a long-term basis’.
It is clear that the UN Committee listened to the concerns of the young people from Ireland who they met and took note of the issues raised in their report. The young people spoke of the pressure that the Leaving Cert places on them and the Committee called on Ireland to consider reforming it. They also recommended that the State put in place accessible options for children to opt out of religion classes. In relation to mental health, the Committee criticised waiting lists for accessing services and called for consideration to be given to establishing a mental health advocacy and information service specifically for children.
The UN Committee zoned in on the need to implement policy and legislation, and to take steps to develop a culture of child-centred decision-making. In particular they called for judges to receive training on children’s rights, and for the right of the child to be heard in court and for the cost of an expert to support the child to be covered by the State.
The coming weeks will see the development of a new Programme for Government. It is a timely opportunity, in Ireland’s centenary year, to make meeting the Committee’s recommendations a key Government commitment.