Do you want our Constitution to protect all families?
Published: Thursday, November 28, 2013
As someone who works with all types of families and who lives in a non-traditional family, I am acutely aware of a failing in our Constitution. Currently it only recognises and protects the marital family.
Societal and historical changes since the current wording in relation to the family was approved back in 1937 mean that it no longer acknowledges the reality of family life in Ireland today; an Ireland where one in three children are born to parents not yet married to each other; one in three families do not conform to the traditional model of a married couple in their first marriage; and one in five children live in one-parent families.
The Constitution should reflect the values at the heart of Irish society. The Constitutional Convention offers the opportunity to ensure that it comes back in step with the reality of life for so many in Ireland which is why All Families Matter, a campaigning coalition calling on the Convention to progressively review the Irish Constitution in relation to the family of which I serve as Chair, was founded.
Among our reasons for reviewing and expanding the understanding of family in the Constitution are:
1. The Constitutional definition of family only affords rights and protection to the marital family and no other set of people are considered a Constitutional family. This is wildly at odds with the reality of family life, with social policy and even with legislation in Ireland which can within limits recognise other types of families. It also causes problems for non-marital families.
2. An expanded understanding of family will build on other recent changes such as the Children’s Referendum; the upcoming Child & Family Relationships Bill as well as the work of the Convention to date including their review of women in the home and same sex marriage.
Census statistics and Growing Up in Ireland data show us the rich diversity of family life in Ireland today. One in three children in Ireland are born to parents not yet married to each other; one in three families do not conform to the traditional model of a married couple in their first marriage; and one in five children live in one-parent families.
Article 41 of the Constitution relates to The Family. It states:
• 1 1° The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society,
It further clarifies:
• 3 1° The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.
The definition of the role of women in Article 41 is also woefully outdated. Our suggestion of new, inclusive wording is to edit Article 41 and add in Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. This wording could offer high level symbolic change that does not put restrictive wording or automatic rights for anyone into the Constitution but allows legislation to be crafted for specific situations as required. It removes the barriers to family equality that are there at the moment, it is child-centred and is potentially helpful to any households/families based on caring arrangements including siblings, other non-nuclear family members, foster families and non-marital families.
A national debate on family along with a referendum could solidify many progressive changes that are underway. An expanded understanding at Constitutional level of what family life in Ireland could mean will make a lot of sense if marriage equality is passed, when the Children’s Referendum is fully implemented and when the new Child & Family Relationships Bill is in place.
There are three steps needed to implement a change of wording to ensure our Constitution acknowledges all types of families:
1. Ensure the Constitutional Convention reviews Article 41 in relation to the family,
2. Ensure the Constitutional Convention recommends that Article 41 is changed to be more inclusive,
3. Ensure the government holds the referendum and that it passes.
Members of the Convention will decide by online poll within the next week what new areas they will look at in February at their final scheduled meeting. We may not get this chance for real change again, so I invite you to consider making an online submission to the Convention now to ask them to review Article 41, The Family. There’s just one week left to make a submission online or if you’re in Limerick, you could attend the final regional meeting of the Convention on Wednesday. Full details are on www.constitution.ie.
Your family matters, my family matters, all families matter; it is time for our Constitution to acknowledge this too.
Find out more about All Families Matter and how to make your online submission here
Karen Kiernan is CEO of One Family (www.onefamily.ie) and Chair of All Families Matter. Current members include BelongTo, Family Resource Centre National Forum, GLEN, ICCL, Marriage Equality, New Communities Partnership, One Family, TENI and Treoir.
The views expressed in NWCI's Blog do not necessarily represent those of NWCI