The Constitution should be amended to grant express rights to children, according to the Law Society.
This was just one of five submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution yesterday which urged specific constitutional protection for children's rights. The committee held its first public session on the role of the family in the Constitution yesterday.
The ISPCC, Barnardos, the Family Support Agency and One Family, all urged the committee to recommend a constitutional amendment expressly granting rights to children to be protected and represented.
Family law expert Geoffrey Shannon, a member of both the Law Society's and Barnardos' delegations to the committee, said children are a voiceless and vulnerable minority group in society. A feature of the Irish family law system was the relative invisibility of children.
"Currently, with no way of exercising their rights, children are in a uniquely vulnerable position in that they cannot exercise their rights during childhood. It should be stated that childhood is for a defined period of time and does not stand still."
Constitutional reform was necessary to recognise and protect the child as a legal person with individual rights, Mr Shannon said. He stressed the need for reform of the family law system, pointing out that the Irish family had changed dramatically since the 1937 Constitution. It now required nothing less than a major overhaul, and must "root itself in reality and not emotive or traditional rhetoric", he said.
The ISPCC drew attention to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Government ratified in 1992, and pointed out it requires that the best interest of the child is the primary consideration in all actions concerning children.
It also states that children have rights independent of their parents, and upholds their right to express an opinion and have that opinion taken into account in matters affecting them.
"Full acknowledgement of children's rights with Irish society still remains a great challenge," according to ISPCC officer Paul Gilligan.
The Family Support Agency, a statutory body supporting families, also urged recognition of the rights of the child. Its chairman, former government minister Michael O'Kennedy SC, said there was no reason why the rights of the child should not have specific constitutional protection. Already the Constitution correctly discriminated in favour of adults in certain areas, like the right to vote.
Karen Kiernan, director of One Family, (formerly Cherish), said the Constitution privileged the rights of the family and parents over children. "The assumption underlying this philosophy is that the unique interests of children and the distinct interests to their parents will always coincide," she said. While most parents do promote the best interests of their children, the absence of any provision for children's rights left a gaping hole in the constitutional protection of the most vulnerable.