With just 9 days left to the Children's Rights Referendum Mothers Alliance Ireland has issued a strong statement, which we have reprinted in full below.
PRESS RELEASE; Date: 21st
October, 2012.
Subject:
Referendum. The Cat is Finally Out of
the Bag.
Mothers Alliance Ireland has issued the
following statement and has called on Irish people to give a resounding NO to
the proposed Amendment of the Irish Constitution on 10th November
next.
“Since the Referendum was announced some
time back, leaders of the yes side, including Ms. Olivia O’Leary, who is
heading up the yes campaign for the children’s Rights Alliance, Barnardos,
ISPCC, etc., have repeatedly told the Irish people that this Referendum has nothing
to do with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This UN treaty is the Elephant
in the Room in this referendum, and the lie is finally nailed by none
other than Minister Frances Fitzgerald’s own Department. In a booklet on the Referendum to be
distributed to every household by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs,
the cat has finally been let out of the bag. On page 3 of that booklet it clearly states that the
referendum “was recommended by the Constitutional Review Group which proposed a
change to reflect the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
ratified by Ireland in 1992.
The Question that every Irish person going
to the polls on Novenber 10th should aks is:
Why has this truth been kept from the Irish people for so long? What is there to hide?
This is what they have to hide: The UN Treaty on children is not about
giving rights to children at all (read Article 2 of the Treaty)*. It gives rights to the State and Agents
of the State – not parents or children – to decide what’s best for every child
in this country. It makes every
child, whether of married, deserted, separated, divorced or bereaved parents, a
ward of the State. Parents,
good or not so good, will no longer be able to protect their children from
intervention by the State or Agents of the State – and we all know how Agents
of the State are currently profiting from the Child Care Industry. This Treaty can be used by the State and State agents to get teenagers to sue their parents if,
for instance parents, in their wisdom, choose to invade
the privacy of their bedroom or check their mobile phone, or try to stop them
using the internet or associating with friends whom the parents consider bad
company.
Mothers Alliance
Ireland is now appealing to all those good people who have been deceived into
campaigning for a yes vote in this referendum to come out on November 10th,
and give a resounding NO to this monstrous attempt to legally deny decent
parents the Constitutional right to
protect their children and all our children and grandchildren from this
explosive Treaty.
Contact: Theresa Heaney, Chairperson, Mothers
Alliance Ireland.
MOTHERS ALLIANCE IRELAND
47 O’Connell Street Limerick. Tel: 023-8846470 – Mob: 087-6486679
mothersallianceireland@gmail.com
47 O’Connell Street Limerick. Tel: 023-8846470 – Mob: 087-6486679
mothersallianceireland@gmail.com
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 2*
1. States Parties shall respect and
ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child
within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind,
irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other
status. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.
NOTE
In its General Comment No. 4 of 2003,40 it [the Committee on the Rights of the
Child stated that,
‘State parties have the obligation to ensure that all human
being below 18 enjoy all the rights set forth in the Convention [on the Rights
of the Child] without discrimination (Article 2) including with regard to “race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national ethnic or social origin,
property, disability, birth or other status”. These grounds also cover, [interalia] sexual
orientation’.[i]
The CRC thus appears to adopt the same approach as the CESCR
[Convention on Economic, Social Cultural Rights] in locating sexual orientation
within the category of ‘other status’.p.215
