Ireland to face questions on women’s rights and equality from other States

Published: Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Ireland’s human rights record will be reviewed at the United Nations in Geneva on 10 November 2026. Ahead of that, today Tuesday 25 August, the National Women’s Council (NWC) and other civil society organisations will meet with UN Member States to highlight ongoing issues that could be raised. The UPR is a unique process where the human rights record of all UN Member States is assessed by other Member States.

NWC will specifically highlight the lack of affordable and accessible childcare as a major barrier to women’s equality. NWC’s Senior Policy Coordinator, Alex Richardson, said:

“The UPR is an interesting process, because Ireland is reviewed by our peers. We are hopeful that some of the more progressive countries, who consider themselves champions of women’s equality, will pick up on the fact that there is no public childcare, and even places where there is no local childcare at all, in Ireland. The impact this can have on a woman’s life is significant, and many of our partners in the EU would be quite surprised at this lack of infrastructure. We would hope they would flag this up on 10 November.”

NWC will also highlight the gender pension gap of 35%, the high levels of poverty for some groups of women like lone parents, Traveller and Roma women, and disabled women, and the low rate of pay for Maternity Leave and other types of Family Leave.

Alex Richardson continued:

“We will be reiterating some of our long-standing recommendations. In addition to our call for a public childcare system we are calling for concrete action on the gender pay gap and gender pension gap, to increase the rate of pay for Family Leave, and to fully individualise the social protection system so that women are not treated as dependents on their partners.”

In its submission to the UPR process, NWC raised concerns around violence against women, leadership and political participation, health and reproductive rights, social protection, equality data and climate justice. At Tuesday’s meeting, NWC will be accompanied by expert colleagues in the sector who will address these issues while NWC will focus on childcare and women’s economic equality.

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Find here NWC’s submission to the UPR: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/Website_Version_NWC_Stakeholder_Submission_UPR_April_2026.pdf

What: UPR Pre-Session

When: 25 August 10am CET

Where: Palais des Nations, Geneva