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The Children's
Commissioner has come out in support of Qantas banning men from sitting next
to unaccompanied children on flights. There has been
widespread condemnation of the policy which was revealed when an Auckland man
was asked to move away from a young boy. However Children's
Commissioner Cindy Kiro says children's safety is paramount and she commends
the airline for putting thought into how it can keep children safe. Ms Kiro says children
travelling unaccompanied are part of everyday life and all we can do is keep
them as safe as possible. She insists that children's safety is the main
priority. The Greens' Human
Rights spokesman Keith Locke wants the Human Rights Commission to intervene
to bring both Air New Zealand and Qantas into line. He says the airlines' ban
on men sitting next to unaccompanied children is clearly a breach of the
Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Mr Locke says the moral
panic about men being a potential threat to children has already had negative
effects, particularly in childcare and pre-school education. He says men are people too
and the airlines should be more down to earth. He says airlines are
reinforcing prejudice by refusing to allow men to sit next to unaccompanied
children. Mr Locke has written to
the Human Rights Commission asking it to intervene, and has also written to
Air New Zealand and Qantas explaining that the airlines have no ethical or
legal grounds for the policy. Qantas refuses to
comment on why men are singled out, saying the policy was introduced in
reaction to what parents want.
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