Goretti Horgan, who is described in newspaper reports as a 'children's rights academic from the University of Ulster' has 'strongly criticised the PSNI after a police flyer was put through her letterbox in the Bogside area of Londonderry'. The flyer carried photographs of young people the police would like to speak to regarding sectarian violence and Ms Horgan said that this was a breach of the children's human rights.
She also said that the rights of children trump all other human rights and that the human rights of those endangered by rioters compete with the rights of the rioters themselves!
I would have thought it was in the best interests of children involved in such actities to be identified so that their parents can be aware of their behaviour and take appropriate action to prevent them being drawn further into criminal activity.
I was also interested to see that Goretti Horgan was described as a 'children's rights academic from the University of Ulster'. She is indeed a lecturer in social policy at the University of Ulster but readers might also be interested to know that she is the partner of Eamonn McCann and that both are members of the Socialist Workers Party.
It is easier to understand Goretti's views when we understand her political philosophy. This is the mad world of Marxism and the sort of nonsense that gets human rights a bad name.
I have no knowledge of the situation in Londonderry but I do know that the police have used a similar approach to identify the republican rioters at Ardoyne last month. It's the right approach and there is a widespread demand for those who engage in such serious rioting to be brought before the courts as a matter of urgency.
On the issue of these childrens rights... Of course most people can understand the call to bring these out of control kids to some sort of 'justice'.... however publicising photos of children that can be accessed by dangerous predatory individuals who can then perhaps use the childrens situation to their own sick agenda is a real danger.
ReplyDeleteParental consent is needed for any publication of photographs of children in local newspapers etc for this reason. The fact that these kids are also in a situation that they can be identified and exploited when we consider the socialisation that has perhaps led to their involvement in lawlessness is most worrying... If these kids are out rioting, who is looking out for them anyways? It's a worrying trend to publicise childrens faces who are wanted by the police and one that places these children in even more danger, besides the dangers they face committing the acts that they do.
I would also argue that there is much more madness in this state that gives human rights a bad name, rather than child protection issues...