Proposed changes to the law will have a negative impact on children and young people and may criminalise them unneccessarily, both the children's ombudsman and the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) have suggested.
Children's Ombudsman Emily Logan: Asbos can punish children for their parents' failings.
The Government's plan to introduce anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) and other changes to the law will have a negative impact on children and young people, the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said.
Publishing her recommendations to the Minister for Justice on the legislation, she said changes to the Children's Act 2001 were in some cases unnecessary and counter-productive.
"My observations on the proposed changes to the Children's Act focus on compliance by those proposals with Ireland's international human rights obligations and the probable effect of the proposals on the lives of children," she said.
"The Act as it stands, focuses on preventative measures and restorative justice mechanisms. It is the right approach and the one which best protects the rights of children and young people in conflict with the law, in line with Ireland's legal obligations.
"They [Asbos] are likely to create more problems than they solve and I question the need for them in the first place. The report on the Youth Justice Review, 2006, commissioned by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, points out that statistics relating to youth offending have remained stable over the last three years," Ms Logan said.
She argued a significant problem with Asbos is that children can be punished for the omissions or inability of their parents or guardians. This is contrary to Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Ireland ratified in 1992, she said.
"Should the Government choose to go ahead with Asbos, I would urge them to closely monitor the system; to review the children being issued with an Asbo, and to record their circumstances, to allow a proper evaluation of the process and not simply the recording of numbers."
Ms Logan said she fully supported the views set out on the issue by the Human Rights Commission, which also published its observations today.
The commission said it was concerned that the effect of the Asbo proposals would be to draw a wider category of children into the formal criminal justice system.
This was counter to the principles set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Delinquency, it said.
"International human rights law clearly sets out the long-term dangers of excessively criminalising children and the IHRC recommends that large parts of the present proposals should be reconsidered in this light."
Among the other concerns set out by the IHRC were the intention to place the continuing detention of 16- and 17-year-old males in St Patrick's Institution on a statutory basis.
"The continuing use of St Patrick's Institution clearly runs counter to human rights standards and has been highlighted as a matter of serious concern by the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention," the IHRC said.
"While the IHRC accepts that it may not be possible to put in place immediately appropriate facilities for the detention of children, it regards the continuing use of an institution that also serves as an adult prison for this purpose to be unacceptable. The failure to make a firm commitment to address this issue within a reasonable timeframe is particularly regrettable."