Family Law - Rights Vs Reality

damien

FAMILY LAW - RIGHTS VS. REALITY

Public meeting sponsored by Labour Equality and Labour Women.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12TH, 10.45am sharp- 1.30pm
TEACHERS CLUB, 36 PARNELL SQUARE, DUBLIN 1 Map

10.45am Registration/ Tea or Coffee
11.00am Official Opening: Liz Mc Manus TD, Deputy Leader, Labour
Party.

First session chairperson:
Senator Joanna Tuffy, Labour Party.

Panel 1.
Frances Byrne (OPEN) - ’Lone parents and the Family law courts - the reality’
Norah Gibbons (Barnardos) - ‘Children’s Rights - Myth or Reality’
Fergus Ryan (One Family) – ‘Modernising Irish Family Law - Rhetoric and Reality’
Mark Lacey (Gay and Lesbian Unions Eire)

11.30am Questions and Answers

12.00pm Second session chairperson: Joe Costello TD, Labour Party

Panel 2.
Ann Gallagher, solicitor (Labour Women) - ‘Practical issues in Family Law’
Francesca Lundstrom (Age Action Ireland) - Grandparent Rights’
Aisling Reidy (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) - ‘Parent’s Rights - a focus on fathers and the gaps in the law’

12.30pm Questions and Answers

1pm Closing Mags O'Brien,Chair, Labour Equality.

If you require crèche or Irish sign language provision contact us by November
4th. Venue is wheelchair accessible from rear. Email us at equality@votelabour.ie

CONTRIBUTORS:

FRANCES BYRNE - ONE PARENT EXCHANGE NETWORK

Frances Byrne is the Director of OPEN, the national network of lone parent groups. OPEN was established in 1994 by 8 local lone parent groups and now has a membership of 80 groups around Ireland. OPEN was the first national organisation to represent the diversity of one-parent families and is a member of the End Child Poverty Coalition, the Community Platform, the Dublin Court Users Representatives' Group, the Irish Childcare Policy Network and the European Network of One-parent Families.

OPEN has published a number of studies on one-parent families in Ireland including, "Living on the Book", "One Size Fits All?" and "Do the Poor Pay More?". Frances is a former Deputy Chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland and member of the National Economic & Social Forum and its Management Committee. A Board member of the European Anti-poverty Network, Frances also sits on the Combat Poverty Agency's Practice to Policy Advisory Group and is a member of the Consumer Consultative Panel of the Financial Re


ANN GALLAGHER – LABOUR WOMEN
Ann Gallagher is a practising solicitor, socialist and former Senator. She qualified with an honours degree in law from Trinity College Dublin. She was the youngest member of Seanad Eireann from 1993 to 1997. She currently lectures in law at the Wexford Campus of Carlow Institute of Technology, and works as a solicitor in Wexford Town. She is a former member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Review of the Irish Constitution, of the Northern Ireland Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Joint Oireachtas Committee on Women’s Rights and founder member of Access for the Disabled. National television and radio appearances and contributions include member of “Today Tonight” current affairs panel, guest on Gerry Ryan T.V. Show, guest on “Morning Ireland”, guest on “The Sunday Show”, guest on “Prime Time” and Oireachtas Report. She is currently a member of Labour Women’s National Executive, Labour Party Lawyers Group and the National Executive of Labour Party.

NORAH GIBBONS - BARNARDOS
Norah Gibbons is Director of Advocacy with Barnardos, Ireland’s largest children’s charity. Prior to joining Barnardos Norah worked as a social worker in the UK. With Barnardos Norah has contributed to, developed and supported a range of services with the primary focus of children’s rights and well-being. Norah represented Barnardos on the Expert Committee on Child Care in the late 1990s which led to the establishment of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme.

As Director of Advocacy with Barnardos, Norah is responsible for the stewardship of the newly established department. Advocacy in Barnardos is about changing the lives of children in need for the better through promoting positive change in policy, legislation and practice. The Advocacy Department will work pro-actively on four identified priority policy areas – child poverty, child protection, educational disadvantage and the effect of alcohol abuse in the family on children – as well as responding to other issues affecting children’s lives as they emerge, working to establish a lasting legacy where children’s rights are protected. The department launched the Barnardos ‘Seven Step’ Plan to End Child Poverty in October 2005. In 2000, Norah was seconded to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (formerly known as the Laffoy Commission, now the Ryan Commission).

MARK LACEY – GLUE
Gay and Lesbian Unions Eire is an independent group promoting equal partnership rights for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer partnerships through awareness and advocacy. GLUE represents hundreds of same sex couples struggling with the immigration issue. Mark Lacey is a founder member and spokesperson for Gay and Lesbian Unions Eire.

FRANCESCA LUNDSTROM - AGE ACTION IRELAND
Dr. Francesca Lundström has worked as a freelance researcher since 1992, when she returned to Ireland from the USA after a successful career as an academic at Rutgers University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Stockholm in 1985. Her undergraduate degree is from the (then) St. Patrick’s College Maynooth. She also holds a Higher Diploma in Psychology from University College Dublin. Francesca specialises in research in the area of ‘people on the margins’ including, people with disabilities, prisoners, frail older people and, of course, grandparents, who really are not on the margins at all but for the most part in the centre of their loving families where they belong.


AISLING REIDY - IRISH COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
Aisling Reidy, a qualified barrister, is Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Aisling returned to Ireland in October 2002 from the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (the ICTY). Prior to that Aisling worked for the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo, and at the Human Rights Center in the University of Essex and the School of Public Policy, University College London. In her work Aisling has been involved in a variety of human rights and humanitarian activities from litigation, advocacy, training and teaching, and developing education and policy initiatives. She worked with NGOs and UK Government Departments, during the passing and implementation of the UK Human Rights Act and has acted as a representative before the European Court of Human Rights on many occasions. She acts as an Expert on the European Convention of Human Rights for the Council of Europe and is a Fellow of the Human Rights Center, at the University of Essex.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties/An Comhairle um Chearta Daonna (ICCL) was founded in 1976 by, among others, Kader Asmal, Mary Robinson, and Donal Barrington. It is an independent, membership organisation that works to defend civil liberties and to promote and strengthen the role and status of human rights in Ireland. It is Ireland’s oldest and only indigenous, broad-based independent human rights organisation. The ICCL has identified the gap between international human rights standards and Irish family law and policy as a key strategic area, and is publishing its policy paper on the topic, this month (November).

FERGUS RYAN - ONE FAMILY
Dr. Fergus Ryan, LL.B. (Hons.), Ph.D. (Dub.), a graduate and former scholar of Trinity College, Dublin, is currently the Head of the Department of
Legal Studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He also serves as visiting
lecturer to the Law Society of Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin, University College, Dublin and for the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fergus is currently the chairperson of One Family, an organisation serving one parent families in Ireland. Fergus is the author of several law texts including "Constitutional Law" and (with Dug Cubie) "Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Law, Cases and Materials" (Dublin: Round Hall, 2004) and a co-contributor to several texts on Family Law and Equality Law.

A former President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers (2003-4) and the current Chairperson of One Family, Fergus is a regular speaker at national and international conferences, and has carried out research for the Law Reform Advisory Committee of Northern Ireland and for the Irish Human Rights Commission. He is a regular contributor on local and national radio including Newstalk 106 and RTE Radio 1. Progressing the work of Cherish, established in 1972, One Family provides voice, support and action for one-parent families through membership, professional services and campaigning. Our aim is to effect positive change and achieve equality and social inclusion for all one-parent families in Ireland.

damien

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damien

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