Vol. 522 No. 2
111 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason his representative in the debate on a draft EU charter of fundamental rights proposed an amendment to the charter, which would delete a reference to children's rights and insert a provision which simply asserts that the authorities must act in the best interest of the child. [18368/00]
Deputy O'Kennedy, the Taoiseach's representative at the convention, the body charged with formulating a draft charter of fundamental rights, submitted a number of proposed amendments to a list of draft civil and political rights produced by the praesidium of the convention. One of the proposed amendments related to the draft article on children's rights, Article 23 of the draft.
The article as originally drafted appeared to be based on Article 12.1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and reflected just one of several provisions setting out detailed rights in the convention. In this case, the right of the child to express views and have those views taken into account in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. It made no reference to the best interests of the child. Deputy O'Kennedy who is advised by a support group comprising representatives of a number of Government Departments, including the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Health and Children, submitted a proposed amendment. The proposed amendment suggested that Article 23 as drafted should be deleted and replaced with language from Article 3.1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The amendment proposed reflects more appropriately the general principle of the predominance of the best interests of the child, a principle which is at the core of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
A number of other proposed amendments were made which were similar to that proposed by Deputy O'Kennedy
