Policy Papers
Peer-based sexual behaviours, especially those involving ‘new media’ - interactive digital communication via the internet or mobile phones - are among the fastest growing areas of concern for front-line professionals in the area of ‘sexual offences’, including the police.
It is a topic, however, which is often subject to much misconception as well as public ‘panic.’
This paper considers the nature and extent of peer-to-peer sexual exploitation and abuse which challenge traditional conceptions of how society regards children and victims more broadly.
Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, consociational power-sharing has been one of the most prominent institutional prescriptions to stop violent conflicts and move divided societies to peace. The key principles of power-sharing - veto powers, protection of cultural rights, proportional sharing of executive offices and public institutions - have been foundational governance principles in divided societies such as North Macedonia, Burundi, Fiji, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As a result of the prominence of power-sharing cases, scholars studying consociations have focused on how institutions can more effectively end hostilities and make the transition from conflict to peace easier. To end violence, central antagonists of the conflict who represent the key political and social divides negotiate power-sharing settlements that formally write into constitutions and legal statutes positions that are salient to the included groups.
While cases of power-sharing have shown to be successful in stopping violence, there is growing evidence that in the decades after peace agreements are signed, political representation is often inaccessible for those non-antagonistic communities, leaving their voices unheard and concerns neglected.
Pope Francis is a remarkably popular religious leader. A term has even been coined to describe his presumed positive impact on Catholicism worldwide: “The Francis Effect”. On 25 and 26 August 2018, Francis visited Ireland as part of the World Meeting of Families. But as his visit approached, the national conversation became dominated by the issue of abuse – so much so that the visit seemed to have become an unofficial referendum on the papal response to abuse.
This report outlines the results of a survey conducted a few weeks after the papal visit which revealed that only 30 percent of Irish people thought Francis had done enough to address abuse during his visit. But practising Catholics, defined as those who attend religious services at least once a month, differed from the rest of the population: 50 percent thought that Francis had gone far enough to address abuse.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) refers to a range of conditions characterised by impairments in the child’s ability to move or control their movement; these impairments are caused by damage or lesions to the brain that usually occur before, during, or shortly after birth.
Across Europe, approximately 2 in every 1,000 live births are affected by CP, and CP is the most common cause of physical disability in children. Clinicians have typically focused on recognising and treating the motor problems that characterise this condition.
However, recent studies have highlighted that pain is a key factor that limits these children’s ability to participate in everyday activities and optimise their quality of life.