Assembly members were yesterday urged to unite against the "illegal" protests against Catholic schoolchildren in north Belfast.
Mr Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein, North Belfast) argued the law was on the side of the pupils at the Holy Cross primary school rather than with loyalist protesters on the Ardoyne Road.
"This is the European Year of the Child, the European Convention of Human Rights places the rights of children above the rights of protests. Protesting against children in my opinion is illegal and it is certainly absolutely wrong," said Mr Kelly.
Tabling a motion calling for support for the Holy Cross children's right to education, he said if members supported children's rights they should call for the blockade to end.
Mr Danny Kennedy, the chair of the Stormont Education Committee, accused Mr Kelly of trying to divert attention from the three IRA suspects currently being held in Colombia.
Tabling an amendment to the motion so it applied to schools throughout north Belfast, Mr Kennedy said the issue of education was being ignored. The amendment was later passed by 48 votes to 43 and the motion passed unanimously.
Mr Alban Maginness (SDLP, North Belfast) rejected the amendment, claiming it distracted attention away from the blockade. "It is insufficient to generalise this into an omnibus motion which involves other schools who hitherto have not been affected and I hope to God will never be affected in the way Holy Cross Girls' School has been affected."
Mr Nigel Dodds (DUP, North Belfast) stressed the only child killed during the current sectarian tensions in the city was 16year-old Protestant youth, Thomas McDonald. "It is shameful that no one has mentioned thus far in all their talk about concern for children the terrible plight of that Protestant family in the White City and what they have gone through."
Mr Billy Hutchinson (PUP, North Belfast) called for dialogue between the sides. "The people in Glenbryn have a legitimate case and it should be heard, and the people in Ardoyne who walk their children to school, certainly they have a case."