Significant work was carried out prior to my appointment as Minister to ensure the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol. Assessment carried out previously concluded that the enactment of Sexual Offences Act 2017 and Criminal Justice (Victims of Crimes Act 2017) removed the main hurdles for ratification.
As outlined in my previous reply on this matter, my Department subsequently made a comprehensive submission to the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 seeking confirmation as to whether Ireland was in a position to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The advice received from the AGO stated that while Ireland is largely compliant with the terms of the Protocol, there are some outstanding issues that need to be resolved before the State can proceed to ratification. My Department has been liaising closely with the Department of Justice and Equality as the outstanding issues identified by the AGO fall within their remit.
The main outstanding issues relate to determining what if any legislative measures may need to be put in place to ensure that the full range of offences covered by the Protocol can be prosecuted on an organised and transnational basis in line with Article 3.1 of the Protocol.
There is close engagement between the Department of Justice and my Department and once this process is concluded the next step will involve the development of measures that might be necessary to enable ratification.
