Children’s Rights and Policies Relating to Children
Listen to the Episode HERE
Remember, this podcast episode is designed specifically to be a part of a SUITE of resources from different areas!!
“Lazy Student”
For a ‘Listen Along Guide’ that will help you to digest the ideas and content covered in this episode, click here:
When you’ve gathered all the information you’ll need on the roles of the Ombudsman and the Minister for Children, dig in a little deeper to one of the possible Human Rights essay titles concerning Children’s Rights by exploring this ‘PolSocPodcast Screencast’ (https://polsocpodcast.com/2020/03/22/screencast-2-childrens-rights-essay/) with all of its materials. These are the core data that you’ll need for a children’s rights essay, and the screencast walks you through how to go about gathering and recording the right information in a simple step-by-step way.
“Engaged Student”
Dig deeper into a “Case Study” on the 2012 “Children’s Rights Referendum”, that includes all the relevant constitutional and contextual information, including arguments ‘For’ and ‘Against’ the proposed changes to the constitution. https://polsocpodcast.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/childrens-referendum-case-study-upload-version.pdf Use these materials to gather data for your essay and to come to a decision on HOW you would have voted in the referendum (had you been eligible to vote!) and WHY you would have voted that way. Remember it’s a key principle of this website that you need to be able to ‘justify’ your opinions. This handout should help, but a H1 student will go beyond just the basics in this handout and try and identify their own sources of reliable information!
“Ambitious Student”
The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman recently released a set of their own resources aimed at helping students in Politics and Society. These include a series of screencasts and resources of their own. They are well worth a look! You can find them here: https://www.oco.ie/news/oco-launches-free-online-education-resource-for-schools-on-childrens-rights/
You could also explore the following websites that have links to various resources and materials that will help make your essay responses more detailed, up to date, and personalized! Remember, what this website aims to provide is the basic ‘scaffolding’ for these essays, but gathering the up-to-date DATA is up to you!
Children’s Rights Alliance website: https://www.childrensrights.ie/resources/search?type=submissions_reports
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth website:
https://www.gov.ie/en/organisation/department-of-children-equality-disability-integration-and-youth/
Quote of the Day:
“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that she is someone today.”
How could this quotation be worked into an introduction to (or conclusion of) one of your essays?
From the Horse’s Mouth
Remember the concept of a UN ‘Periodic Review’ where the committees that oversee the various conventions. This is the process that our “Student’s Strike Back” contributor, Holly Farrell, was discussing (and to which she contributed). When that process was completed the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its report. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) makes all of these documents available. Find the 2016 report here: https://www.ihrec.ie/un-committee-publishes-detailed-and-wide-ranging-report-on-irelands-child-rights-record/
Now, put yourself in the position of somebody who is preparing a ‘submission’ to the next round of the UNCRC Periodic Review:
- What progress would you argue has been made since the 2016 Report was issued?
- What areas (some of which are touched on by the Ombudsman in the podcast episode) remain needing attention?
- How would you go about making progress on these areas?
If you can begin to undertake this process in a serious way, you’re well on the way to thinking like somebody who puts Children’s Rights ‘front and centre’ in their approach!
Best of luck with your studies!
JD
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