Relevant Matter
Public policy or programme
Public Policy Area
EU Affairs
Period
1 Jan, 2016 to 30 Apr, 2016
Specific Details
Ensure Children's Rights are prioritised in all decisions made at the EU Turkey Summit in March
Intended results
∞ Guarantee the right of every child to claim international protection. Criteria are broader for children than for adults and children’s cases should be examined in their own right, not only as part of a family unit. The refugee definition must be interpreted in an age and gender-sensitive manner, taking into account the particular motives for, and forms and manifestations of, persecution experienced by children.
∞ Ensure borders are not closed without providing alternative safe and legal routes for people to escape conflict and seek safety. We need to provide more safe and legal routes through large-scale resettlement or humanitarian admission programmes.
Commit to extend all available avenues to reunite families and bring daughters, sons, mothers, siblings and grandparents to safety.
Make relocation work for children, offer places, build trust in the system, and deploy child protection professionals, especially for the most vulnerable children such as those traveling alone or separated from their parents or those with disabilities or other special needs
Ensure that no refugee and asylum-seeking child is returned in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which in the case of children extends to protection from substantiated risk against life, survival and development, and deprivation of liberty.
Ensure a case-by-case decision based on a thorough best interests determination, including in cases of children with their families.
Protect children from being returned to a transit country unless there are sufficient guarantees that the child will not face real risks of being returned to the country of origin; detained; tortured or subject to inhuman or degrading treatment; trafficked or exploited; and that the child will have access to a fair and child-sensitive asylum procedure and will have access to adequate accommodation, humanitarian assistance, protection, and other basic rights and services. As an immediate measure
∞ EU leaders to reaffirm their commitment that children stranded and in transit will not end up in detention because of their migration status. Returning children to institutionalised care is in principle not in the child best interests.
Full implementation of article 13 of the EU Return Directive, which foresees the right to appeal a decision related to return in front of an independent body, as well as the right to free legal counselling and representation in a language well-understood by the child and conducted by personnel trained on child rights and child-friendly interviewing
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
Vivienne Parry
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
No
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Enda Kenny
Taoiseach (Department of the Taoiseach)
Charlie Flanagan
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)