On June 7, 2021, Seychelles ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure! It is the 48th country to have ratified the OPIC, the 3rd country to become a State party to the instrument in Sub-Saharan Africa and the 2nd State, after Armenia, that has ratified the OPIC this year.  

Seychelles signed the instrument on September 24, 2013. According to Article 19 (2) of the OPIC, the Protocol will enter into force in Seychelles three months after its ratification date, on September 7, 2021, allowing at least 23.175* children to have access to this instrument, if violations about their rights cannot be addressed effectively at national level. 

In 2020, a year in which multiple children’s rights violations were brought to light by the Covid-19 crisis, no States ratified the OPIC. We hope that in 2021 more States continue ratifying the OPIC following Armenia’s and Seychelles’ examples. 

*Total of population aged 0-14 (World Bank Population Data)