Children’s right to participate in decision-making: addressing some myths and challenges Professor Laura Lundy Centre for Children’s Rights www.qub.ac.uk/ccr @childrightsqub

Teaching Grandma to suck EGGs? Teaching grandmother to suck eggs is an English-language saying, meaning that a person is giving advice to someone else about a subject that they already know about (and probably more than the first person).

Take a sheet of A4 paper. Write down (or draw) your ‘hidden’ talent. Don’t write your name

a powerful frame for understanding Child participation “States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.” Article 12(1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Adults’ focus on the ‘voice of the child’ A disconnect between law, children’s experiences and adults’ understanding Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People 2004 The legal text of Article 12 Adults’ focus on the ‘voice of the child’

What does Article 12 require? The Voice of the Child? The Right to be Heard? The Right to Have a Say? “Each of these abbreviations is an imperfect summary and can potentially undermine its implementation”

Voice is not enough… Lundy (2007) Facilitated to express views freely in medium of choice SPACE Safe and inclusive opportunity to form and express a view The right to express views ARTICLE 12 The right to have views given due weight AUDIENCE The view must be listened to INFLUENCE The view must be acted upon as appropriate

Its appeal “Legally sound and user-friendly” Intended to capture the qualities of rights-based participation rather than different forms or levels of participation Concepts are fluid and flexible: can apply to any form of participation for all children in any arena of decision-making. Children grasp the concepts readily.

Ireland’s National Children’s Participation Strategy (2015): A Checklist

Sharing good practice on some Myths & Perceived challenges….

No 1: “THEY ARE TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND”

The right to express a view is not dependent on the child’s age or maturity. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has observed that younger children, for example: ‘make choices and communicate their feelings, ideas and wishes in numerous ways, long before they are able to communicate through the conventions of spoken or written language’ (2005, para. 11).

Discussion No. 1: How Low can you go Discussion No. 1: How Low can you go? Discuss ways of involving very young children. Any good examples?

picture survey

Letting children Choose The children suggested that “circle time” would be a good way of finding out other children’s views. Their choice counteracted some of the recognised disadvantages of group interviews

No. 2: “It’s too sensitive”

Discussion 2 What are the most sensitive issues you have addressed with children and what did you do to ensure that they were empowered and protected?

It’s the right of the child – not the gift of adults

NO. 3 “IT WOULD COST TOO MUCH/ TAKE TOO MUCH TIME”

The reality of Participation? Good Fast Cheap Choose TWO!

Discussion 3 What has worked well for you when money or time was limited?

Talk is (in fact) cheap I can think of conversations I’ve had with children … where we sat down and talked very seriously about their situations and in those meetings I got to hear probably some of the most salient pieces of information about policy-making that I needed to... (Public official)

NO. 4 “IT WOULD BE TOKENISTIC…”

Participation is always imperfect ‘Tokenism’ may be a start.

Don’t underestimate children’s ability to claim the space Being surrounded by adult journalists, I took the floor to ask my question, attracting everyone’s attention. So I took advantage to talk in the name of all children. No more violence, no more human trafficking.” (Girl, 12, Latin-America-Caribbean)

Making ‘meaningful engagement’ a meaningful term. In 2007, trying to articulate the concept of influence, I settled, as others do, on feedback: “… make it uncomfortable for adults to solicit children’s views and then ignore them…” Lundy, 2007.

Some helpful ‘F’ words… Feedback should be: Fast Full Friendly (Child-) Followed-up.

Final Discussion: What strategies can be deployed for securing (the greater likelihood) of influence?