Young Ireland - Children & Young People's Rights

Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1992. We recognised that children in Ireland have specific rights, and that we have a responsibility to make those rights a reality.

Young Ireland sets out our commitment to developing children’s rights training and other resources to improve how Ireland realises the rights of children and young people. We will upload resources here when they are developed.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is an International human rights treaty. It sets out the rights of children and young people under the age of 18. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, it became the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history. 196 countries have become State Parties to the Convention, including all but one of the 195 UN Member States. When Ireland ratified the treaty in 1992, we entered an agreement to uphold the rights of children and young people in our country.

Ratification indicates an agreement to be legally bound by terms of the Convention under international law. This is distinct from the act of signing a Convention or Protocol which constitutes a preliminary endorsement of the instrument, but does not create a binding legal obligation. Once a state has ratified the Convention, it becomes a “party” to it.

The UNCRC has four key principles:

• all the rights guaranteed by the Convention must be available to all children without discrimination of any kind (Article 2);
• the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children (Article 3);
• every child has the right to life, survival and development (Article 6); and
• the child’s views must be considered and taken into account in all matters affecting him or her (Article 12).

The articles of the UNCRC are wide-ranging and cover a number of areas including health, housing, social security, education, leisure and play, child protection and welfare, criminal justice, international protection as well as access to information and participation in decision-making.

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office, which promotes the rights and welfare of children under the age of 18, has developed a video explaining more about the Convention here.

Ireland is required to submit regular state reports on measures it has taken to progress the implementation of rights under the Convention. Subsequently the State delegation has to appear before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for an oral examination.

In February 2022, Ireland submitted its combined fifth and sixth periodic reports under the Convention to the UN Committee. In January 2023, Minister O’Gorman led a delegation of officials from relevant government departments for the hearing before the Committee in Geneva.

In February 2023, the Committee published its Concluding Observations on the Irish reports, in which they welcomed the progress Ireland has made in respecting children’s rights, and highlighted areas where more needs to be done. The Committee’s most recent concluding observations on Ireland’s combined fifth and sixth periodic reports can be read here.

Since the publication of the Convention, three Optional Protocols have followed. An Optional Protocol is an additional part to an existing treaty that addresses issues which weren’t covered in the main treaty, or which weren’t covered sufficiently. Countries need to sign and ratify each Optional Protocol separately, because they sometimes create additional responsibilities to carry out.

The First and Third Optional Protocols, which Ireland ratified in 2002 and 2014 respectively, relate to the protection of children from involvement in armed conflicts, and to a communications procedure, allowing children to bring complaints directly to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Second Optional Protocol to the Convention concerns the sale of children, the exploitation of children in prostitution, and child sexual abuse material. Ireland signed the Second Optional Protocol in 2000, and is now preparing to ratify it.

For more information about each of the Optional Protocols, click on the linked text below.

First Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

Second Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure