“Children’s Rights Amendment” Warning!
“Children’s Rights Amendment” Warning: Keep away from children with special needs and children whose parents have special needs. “Alert” Amendment 31 deletes Article 42.5. “In exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral reasons fail in their duty towards their children, the State as guardian of the common good, by appropriate means shall endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard for the natural and imprescriptibly rights of the child. “ The State has fought this article in the courts (and lost!) because it places absolute (not subject to available resources) obligation on the State to help children in need “by appropriate means” (according to the needs of the child not according to the whim of the State). This wonderful constitutional provision acknowledges two kinds of parental failure, “moral” (abuse, cruelty, negligence) and “physical” that is a shortfall that is not the parent’s fault but due to some condition beyond their control for example, the disability of the parent or child, illness of either, poverty, homelessness, etc. Art. 42.5 demand an “appropriate” response in helping the child who is being “failed”. In abuse this will obviously mean protecting the child from the abuser and helping the child to heal from the abuse. But in situations of “failure” of caring parents for “physical reasons” an appropriate response means support and services for the child and the family in the form of therapy, treatment, healthcare, home help, supplementary payments, respite, etc. The Sinnott Judgment building on O’Donoghue forced the State to acknowledge its duty to provide appropriate education for all children with special needs; article 42.5 played a key role in winning this judgment. Any shortfall in education, healthcare and services that children experience is not the fault of the present constitutional wording which robustly defends every child. Rather any denial of appropriate services is the result of state negligence of its duties. The state are now asking us to delete Article 42.5 and with it the States obligation to help children in need appropriately. We have fought long and hard through the courts for our children’s rights. Don’t let the state off the hook! Vote NO on November 10th.
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2012-11-04 13:01:31
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