Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 April 2024

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Ireland's International Obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Discussion

Sienna Shackleton:

Education is absolutely all of it, from all ages to all backgrounds, to anywhere you are coming from. Whether you have lived here your whole life or have just moved here does not really matter, you should be given some kind of education. It should be provided, you should be supported. As was said, there is covert racism and I will read a quote from a child in secondary school who stated:

We had an event [on] for Pride, and everyone showed up, everyone was in colour and there was music. But then next week there is an event [addressing] racism, no one showed up. And not even the people of colour in my school, because they were scared to support themselves because there is ... stigma around that.

We have seen over the years that we can reduce and fight stigma, by talking. The more talking we do, the more education we have. We are going to bring that stigma down; it is going to be easier to talk about it. Just like Mental Health Week, this can be talked about. We can be provided with education and can give others education. Multiculturalism is the biggest thing that we need to enforce at the minute.

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