Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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165. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide an update on the resolution entitled Preventable Mortality and Morbidity of children under five years of age as a human rights concern at the Human Rights Council of the UN; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4286/14]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Ireland’s three-year membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2013 - 2015 presents an opportunity to make an enhanced contribution to the international promotion and protection of human rights. In particular, we are committed to highlighting the importance of ensuring that human rights considerations underpin all areas of development, with a particular focus on gender equality, health, education and combating hunger.

As part of that commitment, Ireland, in partnership with a cross-regional core group of countries consisting of Austria, Botswana, Mongolia and Uruguay, presented a resolution entitled “Preventable mortality and morbidity of children under five years of age as a human rights concern” at the most recent session of the Human Rights Council which took place from 7 - 28 September 2013. The resolution was adopted by consensus by the Council on 26 September 2013. Six point six (6.6) million children under the age of five die each year, mainly from preventable and treatable causes. The resolution focuses on how the Human Rights Council can act in elaborating a human rights-based approach to this issue to support the much needed engagement of the human rights community in the ongoing efforts to strengthen accountability for children’s health.

As a result of the adoption of this resolution, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is elaborating technical guidance which will be grounded in human rights principles, and which will help national Ministries and other actors to design policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable morbidity and mortality of children under five. OHCHR is preparing this technical guidance in close consultation with the World Health Organisation and with the participation of all relevant stakeholders, including governments. My Department is providing financial support through the World Health Organisation for the development of the technical guidance.

The resolution also mandates the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to convene an expert workshop to discuss the draft technical guidance. This workshop will be convened in 2014 in cooperation with relevant UN agencies, in particular the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, special procedure mandate holders, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children. It will also entail the participation of governments as well as being open to regional and civil society organisations.

Finally, the resolution requests the Office of the High Commissioner to provide an oral update on the elaboration of the technical guidance before the twenty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, which will take place in September 2014, and to present the technical guidance to the Human Rights Council at that session. Ireland intends to lead a further resolution at the Human Rights Council on the preventable mortality and morbidity of children under five years of age as a human rights concern, once the technical guidance is presented.