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	Calls for Protection of Children By Pamela Newenham and Elaine Edwards Irish Times November 26, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1126/breaking77.html?via=rel The recommendations of the report into the handling of allegations of child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese should not be "left on the shelf", the ISPCC has said. Responding to the Commission of Investigation report which concluded that clerical child abuse was covered up by the Dublin Catholic Archdiocese and other authorities, the child protection charity said it acknowledged and welcomed the steps the Catholic Church had taken in recent years to address child protection and welfare. It said, however, that child protection guidelines without the necessary statutory and administrative framework were not enough in themselves. ISPCC chief executive Ashley Balbirnie said: "In the last ten years, we have seen a litany of inquiries and reports such as Ferns and Monageer. All of these had a plethora of recommendations whose aims were to improve child protection and welfare procedures in Ireland. Let us learn from this and ensure that the recommendations in the most recent reports (Ryan and Dublin) are not left on a shelf." The charity said the 'Children First' guidelines should be placed on a statutory footing, as recommended in the Ryan report last May. It also called for the swift introduction of legislation recommended in 2008 by the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children in relation to Garda vetting, and for a constitutional amendment to enshrine children's rights. The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) said the Church should make full and proper reparations as far as is possible to the victims of its wayward priests without the excessive legal and adversarial approach previously adapted. Calling on Pope Benedict to appoint a special representative to Ireland to oversee the entire inquiry process in conjunction with the civil authorities, it said similar inquires into abuse in all other dioceses in Ireland should take place. Today's report into the handling of allegations of clerical child abuse underlined the urgent need to put children's rights into the Constitution, human rights group Amnesty International said. Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O'Gorman said: "Our children are our responsibility, and not the responsibility of any agency that places itself above the law…today we see the consequences not only of cover up on the part of the Catholic Church, but also of State failure to guarantee children's rights and child protection." "We had the Ferns report in 2005, the Ryan report in May and now this…unless our most fundamental law demands that we put children's rights at the heart of the decisions we make they will remain targets for abuse and neglect," Mr O'Gorman added. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed the publication of the Murphy report saying publication of the investigations indicated the first step in the healing process for the victims and survivors of sexual abuse. Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, chief executive of DRCC said: "We now have the opportunity with all the information we have as a result of both the Murphy and the Ryan Reports, to ensure that these atrocities never happen again." Reparation must be made and policies and procedures put in place to ensure that these atrocities do not happen again, she said. "It is not enough to have Guidelines for Child Protection anymore we must put child protection on a statutory basis." The Children's Rights Alliance said the report highlighted gross inadequacy in the response to allegations of child abuse. Clearly, avoiding scandal and protecting individual or institutional interests was put before the welfare and best interests of the child, the alliance said, adding that no institution should ever be afforded exempted status. The Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) said the report raised "very serious questions" for everyone in religious life. Sr Marianne O' Connor, director general of Cori, asked "how could all of this abuse have occurred and be perpetrated by people who were in positions of trust and who were supposedly living Christian lives?" "So many children have suffered and it is very clear that not enough was done to protect them or to deal with the abusers, when knowledge was to hand," she added.
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