Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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158. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Ireland will support and advocate for drafting of the proposed new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (details supplied); if he will express support for the new optional protocol before the United Nations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49549/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the discussions held during the first session of the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIGWG) earlier this month. The OEIWG has a mandate to explore the possibility of a new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The meeting was attended by our Permanent Representation to the United Nations in Geneva.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a core international human rights Treaty which Ireland unconditionally supports, both in our international engagement and domestic implementation. The Convention is one of the international community’s most important and widely adhered to Conventions. Adoption of the Convention in 1989, and subsequent widespread ratification, laid the foundation for significant progress worldwide on the recognition of children as rights holders in international law.

The Convention’s obligations on States have been transformative in enabling significant progress on the right to education for children worldwide.

The meeting of the OEIGWG provided a welcome opportunity to consider this important topic and to explore the possibility of a 4th Optional Protocol, along with full consideration of other approaches which would reinforce education provision, including with respect to early years education.

It is important that, in addition to exploring the possibility of a 4th Optional Protocol, the group also gives priority to the question of how we can best implement the existing Convention and mechanisms States are committed to, given the widespread numbers of children currently out of school and receiving no education at all.