What is the UNCRC?

The Government of Ireland ratified - or formally agreed to - 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.

What is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

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 under the age of 18 in our country.

Ratification indicates an agreement to be bound by the terms of the Convention under international law. Once a state has ratified the Convention, it becomes a “party” to it. 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 obligation.

What does the UNCRC say?

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 has developed a video explaining more about the Convention. Click here to watch it.

Click here to read the official text of the Convention or here. to read the child-friendly version.

Who oversees the implementation of the UNCRC?

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is the body of 18 independent experts that monitor implementation of the Convention and of its Optional Protocols. Members are persons of recognised competence in the field of human rights and are elected for a term of four years by States Parties in accordance with article 43 of the Convention. They serve in a personal capacity and may be re-elected if nominated.

The Committee makes recommendations on any issue relating to children to which it believes all State Parties should devote more attention. These are known as general comments and they offer a contemporary consideration of the articles and principles in the UNCRC, as well as guidance to states on upholding children’s rights across a range of themes.

As of September 2023, the Committee has adopted 26 general comments. Recent general comments concern children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change; children’s rights in relation to the digital environment; and children’s rights in the child justice system. The full list of general comments is available here.

The Committee also receives reports from State Parties on measures taken to progress the implementation of rights under the UNCRC in that state. Following receipt of a state’s report and an oral examination with state officials, the Committee publishes a report of their assessment of the state’s progress and recommendations for improvement, known as “Concluding Observations”.

A further component of the Committee’s work involves assessing and issuing decisions on complaints received about specific violations of children’s rights under the Convention and its first two Optional Protocols. Under the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure, individual children, or those acting on their behalf, can submit complaints directly to the UN Committee, provided that state has ratified the treaties.