Following a review earlier this year, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have published their observation on children’s rights in Ireland, highlighting a number of important issues.
Examining all aspects of childhood in this country, they expressed deep concerns on the continuing discrimination against non-Christian children in schools.
In their report they write that the committee is “concerned at the very small number of non-denominational schools” and by “schools continuing to practise discriminatory admissions policies on the basis of the child’s religion and/or whether his/her parents are former students of the school.”
This is the first time in ten years that a review of this scale has taken place, and education was not the only thing that they were concerned about; childhood poverty and homelessness were two of the most important topics discussed, as well as Ireland’s abortion law, saying it “prevents doctors from being able to provide services in accordance with objective medical practice.”
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Dr James Reilly has said that the committee’s observations would be “referred to Government departments and agencies for attention”.
The observations following the UN Committee’s review are hugely important, so please SHARE if you want to see change.
