Is there a strategy or policy on children and young people’s participation in your country?
Principles for promoting children’s participation
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child set nine principles of effective and meaningful child participation.5
Transparent and informative – Children should be given information about their right to participate in a child-friendly and accessible format. The information should include how they will be able to participate, why they have been given the opportunity to participate, the scope and limitation of their participation and the impact that they will be able to have.
Voluntary – Children have the right not to exercise the right to participation. Children should be able to choose whether or not they would like to participate and should be informed and able to withdraw from activities at any time. Children should not be coerced into participating or expressing their views.
Respectful – Children should be treated with respect and provided with opportunities to express their views freely and to initiate ideas. Staff should also respect and gain an understanding of the family, school and cultural context of children’s lives.
Relevant – Participation should build on children’s own knowledge and should be focused on issues relevant to their lives and the local context. In addition, space needs to be created to enable children to highlight and address the issues they themselves identify as relevant and important.
Child-friendly – Child-friendly approaches should be used to ensure children are well prepared for their participation and are able to contribute meaningfully to activities. Since children need different levels of support, participation approaches and methods should be designed or adapted based on
children’s ages and evolving capacities.
Inclusive – Children’s participation should provide opportunities for vulnerable children to be involved and should challenge existing patterns of discrimination. Particular efforts should be made to enable participation of children and young people with fewer opportunities, including those who are vulnerable or have special needs. Staff should be sensitive to the cultures of all children participating.
Supported by training – Staff must have the knowledge and capacity to facilitate meaningful child participation. This may involve training and preparation prior to engaging children in activities, as well as ongoing support as required. Children themselves can be involved as peer trainers and facilitators on how to promote and practice effective participation.
Safe and sensitive to risk – Adults working with children have a duty of care. Staff should take every precaution to minimise the risks to children of abuse and exploitation and any other negative consequences of participation. Children should be aware of their right to be protected from harm and know where to turn for help if needed.
Accountable – Following their participation, children should be provided with feedback and/or follow-up regarding how their views have been interpreted, taken into account and how they have influenced the outcomes. Where appropriate and possible, children should be informed about the opportunity to be involved in follow-up processes and activities.
Opportunities for involvement
There are numerous opportunities for children to participate in decision making, individually or in a group, beginning in their families and extending even to the level of local or national political decisions. Examples of successful participation of children are available all over Europe.
In the family: Children’s participation can should start at home at the earliest age, with children playing a role in family decision making. Serving as a model, it can contribute to the psychosocial development of the child, better family relationships and even prevention of all forms of violence.
At school:Schools can provide important models of meaningful participation. Producing school rules together or entrusting children with decorating the classroom or keeping order can be good starting points, and can help children to identify with their school environment. Although useful, institutions such as school councils will only provide opportunity for genuine participation if the children are given real mandate to make decisions. Children can also participate in addressing school problems such as bullying or other forms of peer violence, and can make important contributions to democratic school life through initiatives such as producing a newsletter or online presence, or organising clubs, festivals or campaigns6.
Leisure activities:Children’s out-of-school programmes can provide them with experiences to illustrate how participation can make a difference. Clubs or associations, child- and youth-led NGOs, street programmes, festivals, and campaigns can all offer various opportunities to exercise democracy. Out-of-school activities can often be complementary to school projects.
Online activities: The Internet provides a wealth of opportunities for children and young people to become involved in political debate, surveys, campaigns and organising, or simply practising putting their own point of view across. Combining online and offline activities can provide valuable learning experiences – for example, the #FridaysForFuture campaign that mobilised millions of children around the world to demonstrate on the street and carry out other projects to raise attention to the climate crisis.
Participation at community level: A wide range of good practices is available in relation to children’s participation in their community, including local or municipal children and youth councils with consultative status in local governance. The Council of Europe have set out that the participation of young people in local and regional life must constitute part of a global policy of citizens’ participation in public life. The revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life7 with concrete ideas and instruments that can be used by young people and local authorities.
Participation at national level: The establishment of consultative bodies for children and young people at federal state or national levels, such as children and youth councils, parliaments or forums, is also widespread in Europe, although they differ widely in terms of mandate and structure. Children’s right to participate in decisions affecting them should be enshrined in national legislation that can be supported by a national policy to promote children’s participation.
Participation at international level: International organisations, including the Council of Europe and the United Nations, acknowledge the importance of involving children in their own work whenever it is relevant for children. More and more opportunities are created for children to participate in standard setting as well as monitoring of international human rights conventions. The Council of Europe have called on member states to “support children and young people and their organisations to participate in the monitoring of […] the implementation of the relevant Council of Europe instruments and other international standards on children’s rights”.8 The Council of Europe has extensive experience of involving children in standard setting, recently, in the drafting of the text and the child-friendly version of the Recommendation on Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment. Consultations were carried out in eight member states involving more than 200 children who gave outstanding feedback about the process.9
The Lanzarote Committee, assigned to oversee the implementation of the “Lanzarote Convention”, was the first monitoring body of the Council of Europe consulting children.10
Are you aware of good practices of child participation in your school or organisation, at community, regional, national or international level?
6 Dürr, Karlheinz, The School: A democratic learning Programme Education for Democratic Citizenship DGIV/EDU/CIT (2003) 23final, Council of Europe, 2004.
10 Guidelines for Implementation of Child Participation In the 2nd thematic monitoring round of the “Lanzarote Convention” on ’The protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICTs)’
Is there a strategy or policy on children and young people’s participation in your country?
