By Patrick McGinnity, County
|
Patrick McGinnity often writes comments on articles concerning contemporary societal issues in Northern Ireland. He also writes letters to the Editors of several Irish newspapers. This piece was published as a letter to the
Editor at the Irish Examiner on 13 March 2007. It is
reproduced here with the kind consent of the author. |
HERMANN KELLY exposed a little of the real agenda
behind the so-called children’s rights referendum (Irish Examiner, March 9).
He astutely observed that “the Government desires to
make it easier for State social workers to intervene in family life, and even
place a child up for adoption if the State judges the parents to be morally
incapable”. This is the sinister agenda behind the Government’s platitudes
about “children’s rights”.
For example, Sweden has always been
held up by children’s rights activists as an example of good practice. However,
the Nordic Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) has shown how the Swedish
government has waged war on the private family in favour of the
state-controlled family. Under the guise of acting in the child’s “best
interests”, the government has succeeded in divesting Swedish parents of their
power and transferring it to the state.
The NCHR has exposed how thousands of Swedish children
have been forcibly taken away from their parents and put in foster homes. This
has happened despite Sweden having no real poverty and few real social
problems.
The Irish “children’s rights” agenda is far from being
in the best interests of the child.
Patrick McGinnity, Derrynoose,
Keady
Co Armagh
Northern Ireland.
Sinister
agenda behind children’s rights proposal
By Patrick McGinnity
How to control adults by means of
'children's rights'
By Lynette Burrows
What's Wrong With Children's Rights
By Martin Guggenheim
Why
'the rights of children' is a juvenile concept
By Christopher Caldwell