Aisling Parkes

Children’s participation: moving from the performative to the social

The body of work on children’s participation has been valuable in asserting its importance. Nonetheless, participation is a contested concept and key challenges arise relating to its emphasis on age and voice, its focus on socialising the participative responsible citizen, and its failure to sufficiently recognise the range of participatory activities of children in their everyday lives. This article presents findings of a study on children’s experiences of participation in their homes, schools, and communities including the importance of the relational context, how everyday interactions rather than ‘performative’ formal structures for participation are valued by children and how their participation is limited by adult processes based on notions of competence and voice. It concludes with an argument for recognising and facilitating children’s informal and social participation as well as new forms of democratic processes being developed by children to address the possibility of governance and over-responsibilisation of children.

Representation and participation in child care proceedings: what about the voice of the parents?

Abstract In Ireland, the Constitution guarantees very strong rights to parents and the family, and there has been a long and unfortunate history of failures to adequately protect children at risk. As a result, there has been much discussion in recent years about the need to improve legal mechanisms designed to protect the rights of children. By comparison, little attention has been given to establishing whether the theoretically strong rights of parents translate into strongly protected rights in practice. This paper presents new empirical evidence on the manner in which child care proceedings in Ireland balance the rights and interests of children and parents, including the rates at which orders are granted, the frequency of and conditions in which legal representation is provided, and the extent to which parents are able to actively participate in proceedings. A number of systemic issues are identified that restrict the capacity of the system to emphasise parental rights and hear the voice of parents to the extent that would be expected when looking at the legal provisions in isolation.

Developing a Child’s Right to Effective Contact with a Father in Prison—An Irish Perspective

ABSTRACT Recent years have witnessed a gradual increase in international research on the effects of parental incarceration on families and prisoners both in the short, medium and long term. However, the rights of children with a parent in prison is a subject which, in the Irish context at least, has been ill considered to date by policy and law makers. Research has shown that the consequences of failing to support this group of children can be adverse, not only for children concerned, but also for families and society more generally. Policy and practice development in supporting the child/parent relationship has primarily focused on mothers, with the consequential underplaying of the importance of the father/child relationship from the father’s point of view as well as that of the child. Between 2015 and 2016, a national qualitative study, the first of its kind conducted in the Republic of Ireland, aimed to explore professional perspectives of those working in the Irish prison system on the extent to which the rights of children with a parent in prison are recognised and protected during prison visits. A small number of family members were interviewed to give some insight into the experiences of children and families. Thus, the findings of this study as they relate to the child’s right to contact specifically will be presented and considered. This article adopts a children’s rights framework to consider the challenges involved in realising the rights of a child when their father is in prison. Furthermore, by benchmarking current Irish practices against international and regional standards as far as child/father visits are concerned, it seeks to provide a snapshot of the extent to which the rights of children with a parent in prison are protected in the Republic of Ireland.

Weighing in the balance Reflections on the sentencing process from a children’s rights perspective

A substantial body of research now exists indicating that parental imprisonment can produce multiple negative effects on dependent children. While the criminal justice system can respond to this post-imprisonment through positive interventions, an important question arises as to whether courts should take into account the impact of imprisonment on the children of offenders at the point of sentencing. The recognition of children’s rights in many jurisdictions has prompted courts to develop approaches that take account of these important third party considerations. This article will explore how the courts of South Africa and England and Wales have made space for the rights of children of offenders within the sentencing process and consider whether Ireland might adopt such an approach. Central to this process is how relevant information regarding dependent children can best be presented to the sentencing court. The article will therefore examine the potential introduction of child impact statements into the Irish sentencing process, and the extent to which probation officers are suited to adapting their current pre-sanction report role to include child impact information.