Analyse the access and cultural rights of children/young people in the education system in Ireland and compare their rights with children/young people in another jurisdiction of your choice.

The last decade has seen an increase in policy development relating to children and childhood in Ireland. Taking the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a framework, this Blue Paper asserts that both children and Irish society would benefit if policy development for children were to move from the current welfare-based model towards a rights-based model. Such a shift would recognise children as a discrete social unit to be considered as parallel to, rather than embedded within, the family unit. In 1992 the Irish Government ratified the Convention. The Convention offers a valuable framework within which to develop, monitor and evaluate policy for children. This paper is not advocating the uncritical acceptance of rights as a mechanism for the development of policy for children. Rather it presents an argument for considering the UNCRC as an organisational framework to foreground children’s issues and to highlight the unique nature of children’s needs and rights. The Convention can act as a mirror against which the duties and obligations of adults and of the State – and their response to these obligations – can be reflected. Policy debate in the field of disability has identified a government trend to polarise rights and duties in Ireland. An example is the revoked Disability Bill, 2002 which has been criticised by a number of groups for not being rights-based. In the discussions and debates on the Bill, governmental responses presented the view that there were two ways to address disability and the role of the State