The UN Child Rights Committee (CRC) will review Ireland’s performance this month 

From 16 January to 3 February, several jurisdictions, including Sweden, Mauritius, Oman, Bolivia, Azerbaijan and New Zealand will also be examined.

The seven countries are among the 196 state parties to the Child Rights Convention and its optional protocols.

They are required to undergo regular reviews by 18 independent international experts on how they are implementing the Convention, its optional protocols, as well as previous committee recommendations.

Ireland’s slot before the CRC is on 24-25 January. Respective country reports and other submissions from non-governmental organisations will be publicly discussed across a range of issues.

Views of child

Ireland’s report commits to the establishment of specialised family courts within existing court structures, to create more family-friendly court processes and an improved physical environment, and to facilitate obtaining the views of the child.

The report also says that, in exceptional circumstances, children are placed outside of Ireland where a required specific service is not available, such as specialist child or adolescent psychiatric care.

“Given Ireland’s relatively small population, the very small number of highly challenging cases means maintaining such specialist services would be a significant challenge,” it says.

From 2016 to Q1 2020, an average of five young people were placed in overseas residential placements annually, all in Britain, and not including foster care or other placements.

Where children are placed abroad, they remain in the care of the Irish State. All centres where children are placed abroad are subject to the regulatory and inspection framework of that jurisdiction, and Tusla examines inspection reports before placement.

The reports adds that, in July 2018, there were 1,778 families in emergency accommodation, reduced to 930 families in July 2021 – a 48% reduction.

The public dialogues will be held in the Palais Wilson, Geneva. All public meetings will be broadcast live on UN Web TV. The CRC’s public dialogue with Ireland will take place on 24 January (from 3pm-6pm), and on 25 January (from 10am-1pm). All times are Geneva time, which is one hour ahead of GMT.