HLI Chief Executive Patrick McCrystal in a letter to the Cork Examiner challenges the need to hold a referendum on children's rights. The text of the letter is set out below and is accessible on this link
Fergus Finlay (Sep. 11) is misleading your readers and doing
them a huge disservice by causing them to focus on the "words" of any
proposed changes to the Constitution. The real threat waiting in the wings is
the wording of Article Two of the UN Convention of Rights of the Child which
states that children will be "protected" from the "expressed
opinions or beliefs of the child’s parents…"
This referendum would be about the State
"protecting" children from their parents. What an insult to the thousands
of caring parents all over this country. This referendum is really about a
power grab of monstrous proportions by the State that will eliminate parents’
rights to a horrendous degree unimagined by the public.
There is absolutely no need for a referendum as the rights
of every child born and unborn are better protected in the Irish Constitution
than anywhere in the world. Mr Finlay and Co know that full well and are not
telling the whole story.
