Human Rights Council 37th Session (26 February – 23 March)

Annual Full Day Meeting on Rights of the Child

Intervention by Ireland

5 March 2018

Ireland aligns itself with the statement of the EU and wishes to add the following.

Mr President,

We welcome the distinguished panellists and wish to thank the High Commissioner for Human Rights for his report “Protecting the rights of the child in humanitarian situations”.

The sobering picture presented in this report is of serious concern for Ireland, as it must be to the entire UN community. The number of children impacted by humanitarian situations is staggering.  In 2016 alone 43 million children in 63 countries required humanitarian assistance.  The trend continued in 2017 as children were affected by natural disasters and political & economic instability.  Ireland is deeply alarmed at the fact that children make up nearly half the worlds displaced persons and over half of the world’s refugees.

Ireland firmly agrees with the High Commissioner that it is imperative that all states afford priority to the rights of children in humanitarian situations. The finding that these children are especially vulnerable to human rights violations is most alarming; even more so considering that children in these situations are likely to suffer from deprivation of health care and education; forced displacement; separation from families; abduction and trafficking; recruitment and use by armed forces or groups; and sexual abuse and exploitation.

Mr President

With situations which require humanitarian assistance on the increase we ask the panel how Member States can be encouraged to implement the recommendations made by the HCHR in this report, for example, that all member states should give priority to the rights of children in humanitarian situations?

Thank you.