Madam, - As a lawyer, may I point out that the proposal to insert special rights for children into the Constitution goes against the very notion of human and constitutional rights?
By their nature, such rights are universal. They are universal because they have to do with the basic and innate dignity of the human person. No one can be excluded from the protection of such rights, which include the right to life, bodily integrity, freedom from arbitrary detention and equality before the law. They belong to all persons, including children, simply because they are human persons.
It is clear that children are entitled to the rights provided by the Constitution and these rights can be, and are, vindicated by the courts. Are we now proposing to grant children greater rights than those to which any other citizen is entitled? On what grounds? Because children are more vulnerable and have less capacity to protect themselves? Can the same not be said of many other groups in society - migrants, the aged, the mentally ill? Are they all to receive greater rights?
The point is that human and constitutional rights are not about lobbying for better practices and policies for one interest group or another, however valid that may be in another forum.
The "rights" proposed to be inserted in the Constitution have to do with regulation of State policy in matters concerning children. As matters of policy, they require to be negotiated in the political arena with a view to seeking the common good (i.e. the good of all, including but not limited to children). They are not the subject-matter of the fundamental, quasi-absolute entitlements to which the term "right" normally refers.
Too often, advocacy groups representing particular interests neglect this need to find common ground and instead assert the interests of one section of society over others. Frequently, this is done by misappropriating the language of rights and insinuating that the group they represent has been deprived of their rights (a tactic which smacks of emotional blackmail).
This referendum has little to do with rights and much to do with bias, arising, as it does, from the controversy surrounding the Mr A statutory rape case last year.
Those who care about the welfare of children should not support it but should work instead to change Government policy and practice. - Yours, etc.
Sr MICHELE O'KELLY, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6 W.