Children’s participation: an international review of lessons learned Gerison Lansdown

1. Children’s participation: an international review of lessons learnedGerison 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

9. Moving beyond consultation

10. Recognising and respecting capacity

12. Acknowledging the implications of childhood status

13. Balancing risk and harm Best interests

14. Reaching out to marginalised children • Which voices get heard? • Who gets excluded? • What are the barriers? • How can they be overcome?

15. Overcoming exclusion and discrimination

16. Ensuring ethical and quality participation

17. Shifting the balance of power

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