1. Children’s participation: an international review of lessons learned Gerison Lansdown‘
Children as Agents of Social Change
 Opening Seminar
Wednesday 4 November 2015

2. Over 25 years since adoption of CRC by the UN General Assembly
25 years of working towards understanding Article 12 and its implications for children’s lives
So where are we now?

4. Implications of Article 12
The right of children to express views applies to:
Every child capable of forming a view
Children as individuals and as a group
All matters of concern to them
All judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child
Must be able to express views freely
Not enough to listen – must take views seriously in accordance with age and maturity

5. What has been done?
Thousands of initiatives across all sectors – child protection, education, health, media, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health
Broad range of approaches to engagement developed – peer education, research, advocacy, community development, campaigns, reporting to CRC
Many child led organisations, child parliaments, children’s unions
Presence of children and young people on many international platforms

6. What has changed?
Legal and policy reform - constitutions, civil and criminal law, education, democratic schools
Involvement of children in policy making at local and national level
General Comment on A12 CRC
200 human rights institutions for children in over 70 countries – many involving children
Changing attitudes towards children

7. Challenges to be addressed
Establishing entitlement
Meaningful participation
Acknowledging capacity
Recognising implications of childhood status
Balancing risk and harm
Reaching out to all children
Ensuring ethical and quality participation
Addressing power balances
Learning the lessons

8. Beyond projects - towards entitlement
Protecting the right to participate
Promoting awareness of the right to participate
Creating spaces for participation

9. Moving beyond consultation
Adult initiated
Adult led
Recognises the value of children’s perspectives and experience
Consultative participation
Involving partnership with children
Empowering children to influence both process and outcomes
Collaborative participation
Issues of concern identified by children themselves
Adults serve as facilitators rather than leaders
Children have control over the process
Child led participation

10. Recognising and respecting capacity
Assumptions of incapacity
Lack of opportunity to participate
Inability to acquire or demonstrate capacity

12. Acknowledging the implications of childhood status
Temporary nature of childhood
Relative dependency and powerlessness
Implications for sustainability and commitment

13. Balancing risk and harm
Potential risks associated with participation
Potential risks associated with protecting from participation
Can lead to ‘hidden’ and risky participation
Limits capacities for effective participation
Fails to recognise participation as a means of protection
Denies opportunity to learn risk-taking
Excessive responsibility
Exposure to retribution – challenges power bases
Entitlement to additional protections
Best interests

14. Reaching out to marginalised children
Which voices get heard?
Who gets excluded?
What are the barriers?
How can they be overcome?
Eg Today programme on age of consent – children from Child Parliaments- all very articulate and middle class

15. Overcoming exclusion and discrimination
Analyse who gets excluded
Review treatment of children within programmes
Identify what needs to change to achieve inclusion
Critical review of existing practice
Reach out to marginalised groups of children
Invest in challenging the barriers
Removing the barriers
Undertake research and analysis
Capacity building of staff
Advocacy and awareness-raising
Challenging discrimination

16. Ensuring ethical and quality participation
Children’s experience
Respectful
Relevant
Voluntary
Transparent and informative
Adults commitments
Supported by training
Accountable
Nature of environment
Inclusive
Child-friendly
Safe and sensitive to risk

17. Shifting the balance of power
Children and young people’s participation – not just listening but responding
Relinquishing some adult control

18. Learning the lessons to understand better what works
to help strengthen children’s participation
to enable children to hold adults to account
to help identify what support and resources are needed to strengthen child participation.
to provide evidence to support the case for political commitment to children’s participation rights.

19. Monitoring and evaluating children’s participation
Scope – what degree of participation has been achieved, at what stages of programme development, and with which children? In other words – What is being done?
Quality – to what extent have participatory processes complied with the agreed standards for ethical and effective practice? In other words – How is it being done?
Outcomes – what have been the outcomes of children’s participation, on children personal development and communities, and on the wider realisation of their rights? In other words – What has changed?

20. Conclusion Significant progress but a long way to go
Participation fundamental to the dignity and humanity of every child
Need to be prepared to challenge power bases and advocate for real and sustained rights
Also important to recognise that children are not adults – they have different legal status and protection rights
Need to move beyond participation as a privilege for the few towards an entitlement for every child
Goal must be for cultural change towards participatory inclusion at all levels of society

21. ‘Listening is not enough. Adults must act on our concerns’.
I don’t know my rights, but you don’t know my life’
6 year old boy, Bangladesh
Young people at a conference in Canada