It's only right

A booming economy, wonderful educational opportunities and increasingly enlightened parents - surely Irish children are having the time of their lives? So why all the fuss about rights? "There has been a certain complacency in Irish attitudes to children," maintains Noirin Hayes, vice-chairperson of the Children's Rights Alliance - "partially due to the traditional view we have of them, and their role in society. "But over the past 30 years Irish society has been changing rapidly - in relation to women's roles, urbanisation, access to education, immigration - and there has been no over-arching view of how this is impacting on children."

Earlier this year, the State was in fact criticised by the United Nations for its attitude to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its provision for children in general. A glance through the papers, or a quick flick through the TV stations, frequently reveals a disturbing perspective on Irish children's quality of life. The Irish Times, for example, recently interviewed a 12-year-old child sleeping rough on the streets; she was looking forward to getting a Happy Meal at McDonald's for her boyfriend's birthday. Increasingly in families both parents must go out to work, which means all sorts of extra pressure. Land is being re-zoned to meet housing needs, which means more traffic and less space to play.

In fact, pollution, poverty, suicide, rising exam pressure and family violence are as much a reality for Irish children as parties at Pirate Pete's.

This Thursday, the Children's Rights Alliance will host a conference at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, to mark the sixth anniversary of the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among the issues that will be raised at the conference are the challenges facing Ireland in protecting children's rights.

According to Teresa Blake, a barrister who will address the conference, "from a legal perspective there are a number of issues of concern, including the need to insert an article into the Constitution on children's rights which recognises their citizenship and the need to establish adequate educational provision for children with special needs".

Increasingly, parents are resorting to the High Court in cases where the State is failing to vindicate the rights of their children, she says. In particular, parents of children with special needs have untold difficulty accessing appropriate educational facilities. "Parents are beside themselves if their child doesn't fit into some specific, narrow category which meets the State's needs. They have to go to court to ensure their children have access to what is one of the most fundamental of rights - and it is amazing how quickly the various institutions can facilitate these children once a High Court action is taken.

"We have a solid jurisprudence with regard to children's rights. The courts have generally been forging forward - the problem in Ireland is that national policy is lagging behind."

This lack of State policy on children was one subject of critical comment from the UN. The UN's Committee on Children's Rights also expressed concern at the lack of co-ordination among the various State bodies responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of Irish children.

"Children's needs are met in a reactive way," Hayes says. "In other words, the pressure of publicity determines policy, which is implemented in an ad hoc way. This leads to all sorts of anomalies, such as variations in age limits - in some instances children up to 18 are catered for, but in others, only children up to the age of 15 are catered for. "These gaps mean that in certain crucial instances, children between the ages of 15 and 18 fall through the gap in service provision - no one has responsibility for them.

"But the Convention on Children's Rights refers to "all children up to the age of 18". Having ratified the convention, we have an obligation to ensure children up to 18 have access to their rights. "Instead we have far too many cases of homeless children denied their right to adequate housing; cases of children with special needs denied their right to appropriate education; and all our children being increasingly denied their right to leisure and play as we fail to take their needs into consideration in relation to town-planning decisions."

Despite the serious consequences arising out of the failure of the State to ensure that children's rights are protected, there is still no sign of any sort of mechanism which would ensure children's needs were being met. "It seems this Government has placed the need to create a mechanism which would protect and promote children's rights quite low on the priority list, which is very problematic," Hayes says. "There is an urgent need to establish something along the lines of an ombudsman for children, so we could ensure a more co-ordinated response, which would ensure that children have a secure and prominent place in society."