TIME FOR IRELAND TO RATIFY CONVENTION ON PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND SEXUAL ABUSE

Speaking on the UN Day Opposing Violence against Women, Labour’s spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs has called for Ireland to immediately ratify the Council of Europe Lanzarote Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation & Sexual Abuse.

Deputy O’Sullivan said:

“Today we pause to remember the thousands of women in Ireland and around the world who have suffered or lost their lives at the hands of their partners.

“In Ireland alone, Women’s Aid estimates that some 209 women have been murdered in this country since 1996, 131 of them in their own homes.

“This is something my party colleague Brendan Howlin raised in the Dáil this week, when he asked the Taoiseach to indicate when Ireland would ratify the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

“We must send a signal as a nation that we will not tolerate violence against any man, woman or child. Because sadly, children are too often the silent victims of violence in the home.

“So today, I am also calling for Ireland to quickly move to ratify the Lanzarote Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation & Sexual Abuse. It has now been nine years since we signed on the dotted line, and yet Ireland is still one of the few members of the Council of Europe that has yet to ratify it.

“Measures included in the Convention, such as the criminalisation of child-grooming and so-called ‘sex-tourism’, are absolutely vital for the protection of children. It would be a fitting way to mark today if the Government confirmed their intention to ratify this important Convention before the end of this year.”