A report on the rights of children in Ireland has recommended that they should be given protection in the Constitution.
Prepared for the Ombudsman for Children's Office (OCO) by Dr Ursula Kilkelly, of University College Cork, Obstacles to the Realisation of Children's Rights in Ireland identified six key impediments to the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Dr Kilkelly found that children's rights are often ignored in decision-making pro-cesses. She said the principles of children's rights - including non-discrimination, the requirement to take their best interests into account and to ensure their voices should be heard - should be given explicit protection in the Constitution.
They should also be included in law and policy, particularly in the areas of education, healthcare, youth justice and family law. She found that children are largely invisible in law, policy and decision-making and, to address this, consideration should be given to introducing a legal duty to incorporate children's views into decisions that affect them.
The absence of effective advocacy for children and monitoring of children's services also frustrates the implementation of their rights, the study found. In response, she recommended that an independent complaints mechanism be established.
She also found that an absence of dedicated supports and services for children, especially in the area of mental and adolescent health, along with a lack of sustained and substantial investment in children's lives, creates barriers to the implementation of children's rights.
She said greater training is required for all those working with children to raise awareness of their rights.
The research also identified children who faced multiple barriers to their rights, including those in the care of criminal justice system, Traveller children, immigrant and asylum seekers, homeless children and those in poverty or at risk of abuse or neglect.
A spokeswoman for the OCO said the report would influence its work over the coming years and form the basis of the Big Ballot, in which the views of 200,000 children and young people will be canvassed in October.
