Bringing the rights of children closer to home

Dr. Niall Muldoon – Ombudsman for Children

PSI Conference, Galway, 12 November 2015

Opening greeting

Last year Paul D’Alton, as he took over as president, spoke about being excited to lead the PSI. He said that was borne from leveraging

“the knowledge of psychology in education, practice and science, to create a society where the most vulnerable are loved, where difference is celebrated, and where the enormous capacity of the human project for creating a compassionate, economically vibrant, inclusive and socially connected society is realised.”

He went on to say that

“This is how PSI will flourish in the future. It will flourish because psychologists want to be part of a professional body that shapes policy; speaks emphatically, compassionately and tenderly; and takes its place confidently at the table with the grown-ups.” 

– Paul D’Alton inaugural speech as President of PSI in 2014

From my point of view Ireland today is starting to rebuild itself from all the hurt and pain and economic devastation wrought on it over the best part of a decade. The impact on children has been enormous, and the impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged children has been disproportionate to all others. We just need to look at the levels of child poverty and the large numbers of children who have been made homeless with their families to know that our society has a lot of repairing to do. As a psychologist it is difficult to stand over such effects, but as an Ombudsman, it is impossible, and as both there is an opportunity to make a difference at a systemic level. We need to make sure that the lost are found and the forgotten are remembered in a way that properly respects their position as children and individual rights holders. This aim of this talk is to outline the role of an Ombudsman for Children in promoting and protecting the rights of all children and also give an insight into how my experience as a psychologist influences the way that role will be fulfilled.

1: INTRODUCTION

After working for nearly twenty years as a psychologist, the majority of it spent in the area of child protection, and two and a half years as Director of Investigations at the Ombudsman for Children’s Office, I was deeply honoured to be appointed as the Ombudsman for Children. I received my Warrant of Appointment from President Higgins in February of this year.

As you are aware the Ombudsman for Children’s Office is an independent human rights institution established under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 to promote and monitor the rights of children in Ireland. The Ombudsman for Children is appointed by the President of Ireland on the nomination of the Oireachtas and is accountable directly to the Oireachtas.  Since the Ombudsman’s Office was established, it has dealt with over 11,000 complaints relating to the actions of public bodies. The majority of complaints are brought to us by parents, who are frequently obliged to become advocates, campaigners and even, as one mother told us recently, unofficial case-workers on behalf of their children. “Everything was such a battle,” she said “it was our only option. But the thing is, parents shouldn’t have to become campaigners and case managers for their child. You shouldn’t get care for your child based on your resources or your powers of persuasion or your location or your ability to lobby.” – Is that not the best argument for EQUAL RIGHTS for ALL children?

As Ombudsman for Children I often return to the question posed by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1958: “Where do human rights begin?” Her answer remains compelling:

“In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works…Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”  

For me, the practice of children’s rights must be real in those small places, the places where children are and where they are likely to experience harm, distress and abuse. But for that to happen, all of us have to contribute.

In this talk I’d like to explain a bit about how the work that I do contributes to that practice of rights in the small places.

I’d also like to talk to you all about how you can be part of that as well – how we can all contribute to the creation of a rights-based public administration system where the rights and best interests of children are a primary consideration.

As Fintan O’Toole has remarked, the establishment of the Office “embodied for the first time an official recognition of children as citizens.” It is this concept of children as citizens, as people in their own right, which has underpinned the Ombudsman for Children’s Office since it was established.  The first holder of the Office, Emily Logan, now Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (IHREC), explained this early on in her tenure when she said: “children are holders of rights, not possessions of parents or of the State.” For too long, as we know, that has not been the view taken by many in authority. Indeed, it was only last month that legislation was finally placed before the Oireachtas banning the defence of reasonable chastisement by parents of their children, long after many other countries have done so. This change at long last places Ireland on an equal footing with the vast majority of European Member States

That view of children, as effectively the possessions of others, has led to the horrific abuse which has been well publicised, that has scandalised and shocked people over the last number of years. Acknowledging that children are individuals with entitlement to rights and protection is one very important way to prevent that sort of abuse ever happening again. Having, through my career, witnessed the impact of those attitudes and that abuse, I believe strongly in the protection and promotion of children’s rights. And in “bringing them home” so that they have effect, “in those small places”. Whilst – as I will explain – a statutory and policy framework which promotes and upholds children’s rights is vital, it will never be effective unless each professional who comes into contact with a child understands that framework and their role in promoting the rights of that child.

2. THE OMBUDSMAN’S REMIT 

Whilst many people are aware of the work of the Office through the complaints we deal with, my overall mandate is to promote and monitor the rights and welfare of children up to the age of 18 living in Ireland.

However, part of our job is to also try to ensure that Ireland complies in full with its international human rights obligations – for example, we are statutorily mandated to promote the principles and provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The Convention is the cornerstone of much that we do, but it is not the only relevant treaty that Ireland has signed.

3. REPORTING TO THE UN ON IRELAND’S RECORD

In addition to the rights contained in the Constitution and in legislation passed by the Oireachtas, Ireland has signed up for a number of international human rights obligations. These include the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our commitments mean that we are obliged under international law to put those obligations into effect in our own law and practice. It also means we are scrutinised as to our performance in this respect. Generally this means that every five years the State is required to submit a report on its performance under various UN human rights treaties and then be questioned about that performance by bodies such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Ireland has a very good reputation abroad and we are often reminded that as a small country we punch well above our weight in terms of our influence and presence in places like the UN. But increasingly we are coming under the international spotlight for just how well, or not, we are measuring up to those obligations. In January 2016 Ireland comes under that spotlight again. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) will consider Ireland’s Consolidated 3^rd & 4^th Report, and there will be oral hearings on that. Our Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and civil servants will have to answer questions about how the State has done. My Office will be there to contribute to that process.  I have already generated and submitted a shadow report to the Committee and met with them in June this year to highlight the areas I believe the State has done well in and where improvements are still needed. I made 63 different recommendations around areas such as Education, Disability, Violence against Children and Children’s Rights. Some of the specific recommendations related to the issues of Homelessness, Mental Health and Child Poverty. Indeed, the UNCRC has already identified that access to mental health services will be a matter it wishes to hear more about when it speaks with the Irish Government in January. I will speak more about that in a minute.

One of the points my Office will be making at that session in January is that there are areas of good practice, but progress to date has been too uneven across the public sector. The UNCRC has not been fully incorporated into our law. Rather, certain principles of the Convention have been partially incorporated into primary legislation in a number of areas but there are others – such as education and health – where it has not. So, for example, the CRC requires that “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”  Unfortunately it has been a consistent theme emerging from our complaints investigations that public bodies do not routinely have due regard to this obligation in carrying out their functions with respect to children, despite the passing of the Thirty-First Amendment. – e.g. Case of teenager who was refused admission to secondary school for being pregnant and was refused again the following year for having a baby.

Our report is a detailed one – and you can download it from our website (oco.ie).

4. THE CHALLENGES FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS

So much for what my office does. What I’d like to do now is to ask what can you do to support and promote the rights of children.

As psychologists we know that the key to good practice is reflection, where we challenge ourselves “to make sense of the uncertainty in our workplaces” and find “the courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos.” Ghaye (2000)

Reflection on my own practice brings challenges.  In my own case, I…….

So having shared that with you, I’d like to throw out the challenge to you. If you were to reflect on your own practice and the area of children’s rights, what are the things you as a psychologist could do better? Each one of you will have different answers and therefore different actions to follow to improve on that – I hope we can all commit to improving.

In preparing for this talk, three things occurred to me and I wanted to put them to you for consideration.

I. SHOULD WE BE MORE SOCIALLY ACTIVE?

Recent examples – particularly the engagement of many psychologists in the marriage equality referendum debate show that there is a willingness to become involved in social issues – and this is mirrored across all elements of society for this issue. Whether you agree or disagree with the position taken by many psychologists in favour of one side or another, there is no doubt that it is difficult to be uninvolved with issues like this. Perhaps that is driven by our experiences of the impact of injustice and poverty on mental health. As Isaac Prilleltensky wrote nearly 20 years ago:

“Psychological problems do not exist on their own, nor do they come out of thin air; they are connected to people’s social support, employment status, housing conditions, history of discrimination, and overall personal and political power. Therefore, promoting complete health means promoting social justice for there cannot be health in the absence of justice.”

The marriage referendum debate also saw 100,000 new people register to vote and tens of thousands of young people becoming involved and passionately engaged. And anyone who followed the #hometovote phenomenon could not but have been struck by the power of social activism. That was driven by the powerful idea that we all can and should do something about the defects in the world around us.  Yet we live in an Ireland with a history of looking the other way, of deference to the established order and of an ingrained authoritarianism. That most clearly manifested itself in the scandal of institutional child abuse. As Minister Fitzgerald said while she was Minister for Children and Youth Affairs,

“[A]t every turn, Irish people kept their mouths shut out of deference to state, system, church and community. When they should have been unified in fury and outrage they were instead silenced, afraid to even whisper a criticism against the powerful.”

But, she also added,

“Let’s not fool ourselves into believing that abuse occurred in a sepia-toned Ireland that is dead and gone. Abuse – awful shocking abuse – happened long after we knew of the atrocities of the distant past.  And again it was covered by deference. It was facilitated by the well-meaning and the weak, by the cowardly and the complicit, by the silent and the supportive.”

The fundamental lesson, she says – and in this I agree wholeheartedly with her – “is that we must create a society in which no-one is afraid to speak. In which no-one is afraid to challenge authority and power, because deference to the powerful is a guaranteed way to help that power corrupt.”

Thus, for me that suggests that we as psychologists need to continue to support our clients – be they in the realm of Health (Physical or Mental), Education, Business, Forensic, Adult or Child Psychology or wherever we encounter them – we must support them to have a voice in their own world and to help them realise their rights to the fullest possible extent.

II. WHAT SHOULD OUR ROLE BE?

So with the uncovering and coming to terms with that sort of abuse, is the ground shifting at last? If so, what is our role in that? What should we be doing and as psychologists, what do we bring?

I am one of the very few holders of an office such as mine across Europe who is neither a lawyer nor a human rights activist. I believe that my training and experience as a psychologist allows me to bring different skills to this work. Not better, but different.

So what do we bring as psychologists to the protection of children’s rights? What is different?

Firstly I think we bring that person centred, and in this case, the child-centred approach. Our first concern is the person in the middle of all this – not with the rules, procedures or the law (although those are of course very important). We look first at the human beings involved and at the impact on them.  Secondly we bring a non-judgmental approach. Yes, rights and standards may have been breached, but we don’t confuse acts with the individuals who commit them.

Finally, we bring a rigorous code of ethics which requires us to respect the rights and dignity of the person. That code of ethics also, requires us to “take action against harmful or unethical behaviour in colleagues or members of other professions.”

So, in my role I look at a complaint and seek to understand the impact of someone’s actions or inactions have on a child without pre-judging the person or agency accused. This sense of fairness and perspective is what differentiates my Office from pure advocacy and is something which I believe my psychology training has given me an advantage in achieving.

So I believe we bring a unique and valuable perspective, which enhances and improves the protection and promotion of children’s rights. Our approach is different – not any better, but necessary and important.

III. SO WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING?

Now, having praised ourselves, we need to return to our challenge. Given that what we bring is unique, how well are we deploying those qualities in the defence of children and their rights?

Clearly one way in which we can do that is to be more alive to, and to act more decisively when faced with, transgressions of children’s rights. It is of course our professional duty, but are we guilty sometimes of looking the other way? We know for certain that in the past that happened – but is it still going on? As Minister Fitzgerald said, let’s not fool ourselves that deference is all now in the past.

One way to address that is through the development of a rights based culture. Because I believe that what we all need to be engaged upon is the project to create a child-friendly system of public administration where everyone involved understands the need to protect and promote human rights. Partly this will be done by helping professionals such as yourselves understand your role in this and build your confidence and capacity to assert that role. One way the State can do this is to provide training in the field of children’s rights and especially to promote an understanding of Rights Based Approaches.

So what exactly are Rights Based Approaches?  Basically, they define the relationship between citizens and the state as being one characterised by rights. Individuals or groups are defined as ‘rights holders’ and those who are responsible for protecting those rights are defined as ‘duty-bearers’. Thus the relationship between citizens and the public sector service providers, who bear the duty of implementing human rights commitments, is one characterized by rights (or entitlements) rather than needs.

Rights-based approaches integrate the public sector’s obligations in respect of rights and equality into the planning and delivery processes of public sector organisations. However, in order to facilitate that, capacity has to be built amongst service providers and individual staff to understand what the relevant rights are and how they apply to what they are doing in their everyday work.   For the realisation of rights is a series of links in a chain. That chain begins with the State signing those international obligations and ends on the ground, in the small places where people experience how those rights are (or are not) made real.

There are signs that the sector in Ireland is moving more towards this sort of approach. So, for example, the recent focus in the HSE on engagement with service users, including the adoption of the National Healthcare Charter, shows a commitment to ensure that healthcare services respond to users’ needs. They reflect a desire to have a partnership approach to healthcare based on equitable access, participation in healthcare decision-making and respect for autonomy and dignity – all principles found in a children’s rights-based approach.

As Psychologists, we have a professional and social duty to do all that we can to stand up for children’s rights wherever possible and to listen to what children say whenever we can. We must certainly try to ensure that the next generation of psychologists understands how crucial an aspect of our work this is. But, how should our education of trainee psychologists reflect this role? Should our professional ethics teaching address these issues more openly?

Over the last three years, my Office has initiated a programme of seminars for postgraduate students who have chosen careers that have the potential to impact directly on children’s lives. Hundreds of students undertaking postgraduate studies in social work, social care, education, and child protection have participated in this programme to date. That engagement underscores for us the importance of building awareness and capacity among professionals about a children’s rights-based approach to their professional practice. I would like to extend those seminars to include psychology trainees so that they too can know the importance of a human rights approach. Any Course Directors who are interested please feel free to contact the Office about this.

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman also supports the development of a Rights Based Approach through our own research and other activities. So for example we commissioned a report, called child-friendly healthcare (available on our website) which makes practical suggestions as to how a rights based approach can be implemented in our health and care services. We have drawn on best practice and experience internationally, as well as examples from within Ireland to assist health care professionals in taking a more rights based approach.

Understanding the reality of how a Rights Based Approach operates on the ground is crucial and as psychologists we can actively contribute by reflecting and commenting on how the supposed changes, to policy and practice, that government say they have brought about actually work – in the small places! In the schools; In the hospital; In the Primary Care Centre; In the residential centre; In the psychiatric unit; In the home which may be a place of warmth and support OR neglect and abuse!

You will know about that better than most. So you can provide crucial feedback – positive, where you think things are improving, or where you see examples of good practice that could be mainstreamed elsewhere. But you could also voice your opinion about the negative things – where systems, procedures or policies have broken down, or worse. The recent commentary in the US and internationally on the role of psychologists in prisoner interrogation is a real example of a profession reflecting on its overall role in society. Such feedback is vital to my Office when reporting to the Oireachtas or to bodies such as the United Nations, when we explain the reality of Ireland’s performance in relation to children’s’ rights. We have all seen the glossy policy documents and the polished press-releases. But sometimes the reality, in the small places, is very different. We all know that “information is power” and without it, it can be difficult to overcome the spin and the gloss. It helps us all to speak up when necessary so that we keep the focus rightly on the children at the centre of our work.

My office could most certainly do with your help on this and we would welcome your feedback and comments. I’d therefore like to challenge you all to become our eyes and ears on the ground, in the small places. It would be a significant contribution and support the work we do in facilitating change.

5. CONCLUSION

The realisation of children’s rights in Ireland is an unfinished project. Failings are evident across all different areas of public administration concerning children where we have frequently found policy implementation dominating over children’s rights and best interests.

You all have a key role to play in changing that and I want to assure you that you have the support of my Office in doing so. We also wish to promote amongst mental health professionals the willingness to listen more closely to the experiences of young people themselves.

Listening to children and young people like Cait, who we heard earlier, presents a vital opportunity for us to learn and improve the service we offer to them. Not least because the attitudes of some professionals towards children with mental health problems  need to be challenged and changed – as they reflect a belief that such children are cognitively less able to be consulted and involved in decisions affecting them. I am a firm believer in the old saying “out of the mouths of babes…” because it is by humbling ourselves to hear the opinions and perspectives of the children in our care that we grow a more co-operative relationship and avoid the pitfalls of assuming ourselves the expert and the child the subject.

We all have a unique contribution to making rights real in the small places and I suppose what I am doing today is to challenge you to become pathfinders – something that is difficult and often scary, but without pathfinders, little changes. Without what Robert Kennedy once called “numberless diverse acts of courage and belief” the status quo remains. As he went on to say, one sunny afternoon in Cape Town in 1966,

“Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

In the past and perhaps still today, when children report abuse or other violations of their rights, their voices carried little weight. They weren’t listened to then and they weren’t believed. It is still happening now, unfortunately. We can hope that it will change, but it needs to be more than a wish or a hope:  you as professionals and as parents, uncles/aunts and citizens are the last link in the chain that leads from Ireland signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, through the Oireachtas and legislation, through public services and the implementation of its policy, through the HSE and all the various public bodies right through to the child or young person you come into contact with. Each one of you is the means whereby those international commitments are made real and practiced on the ground, every day, in the small places, close to home.

So PLEASE continue to stand up for the ideal of children’s rights, improve the lot of others and speak out against injustice THEN we will know Ireland is truly keeping the best interest of children at the heart of our society.

THANK YOU

 

¹ Ghaye, T (2000) Into the Reflective Mode: Bridging the Stagnant Moat. Reflective Practice, 1 (1): 5 –9, at p.7)
² Prilleltensky, I. (1999). Critical psychology foundations for the promotion of mental health. Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 1, 95-112, at p106.

• 12 November 2015
• Type: Statement