Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs when Ireland will ratify the United Nations Conventions which it signed in 2000 in relation to the rights of the child; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39528/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, was adopted and opened for signature by the General Assembly of the United Nations in May 2000. Ireland signed the Optional Protocol on 7 September 2000. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 18 January 2002, following its ratification by 10 states.

The Optional Protocol covers inter alia, the sexual exploitation of children, the transfer of organs of a child for profit, engagement of a child in forced labour and improperly inducing consent for the adoption of a child.

Some legislative changes are required before Ireland can ratify this Optional Protocol.

I understand from my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, that the General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Offences) Bill has been approved by the Government and that the proposed legislation is currently being drafted in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. The provisions of the proposed legislation will bring Ireland into line with the requirements of the Optional Protocol in relation to the criminalisation of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

I understand from my colleagues, the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister of State for Children, that their officials are reviewing the legislative changes required in the areas of adoption of children and sale of children's organs for profit, which would enable Ireland to move to ratify the Optional Protocol.