Dr. Carine Le Borgne, Senior Policy Adviser, World Vision UK
Thirty
years ago, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was
adopted. The UNCRC is the most ratified human rights convention. Only the USA
has not yet ratified the UNCRC. Article 12 of the UNCRC recognises children’s
right to participate in decisions that affect them. Since the UNCRC’s
ratification, children and young people’s participation has been encouraged by
many initiatives in schools, in communities or at the national level with
decision-makers. However, the way children and young people participate in
decision-making is often problematic in practice. Many participatory
initiatives have been developed across different countries and contexts, but
often without a clear definition of what children and young people’s
participation is (Lansdown 2014).
In
2009, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (a group of independent experts
who monitor the implementation of the UNCRC) clarified the term ‘participation’
as: “Ongoing processes, which include information sharing and dialogue between
children and adults based on mutual respect, and in which children can learn
how their views and those of adults are taken into account and shape the
outcome of such processes.” (CRC/C/GC/12 para 3)
In
practice, including children and young people in decision making can raise
challenges that frustrate children, young people and adults. It is recognised
that children and young people generally have positive experiences of
participation but that their views have little impact to no impact on
decision-making (Tisdall et al 2014). Indeed, children and young people’s
participation processes “have sought to raise the voices of children and young
people as an end in itself, rather than a means to achieve positive
transformational change” (Johnson 2015: 159).
During
my work for NGOs with World Vision and my research at the University of
Edinburgh[1],
I reflected on my practice in working for NGOs in the field of child participation
and how we can implement better children’s participation.
Here
it’s my recipe to change the mind-set of adults to implement better child
participation!
In
order not to be anxious about participation, we need to think about the benefits
of changes for children and young people and for adults as well. New things
make people uneasy, especially when they imply a change of mindset.
Participation means a change of mind and behaviour in taking seriously into
consideration the view of the child; but in some societies children ‘don’t
exist’. Participation is to understand each other; to feel free to speak
without fear; to take part in dialogue in the family, in school, in the
community, with decision-makers and within the NGO.
When
we want to make a change in our life, we need to consider the ‘time
elements’. We can change, but to do so we need to know the meaning of
‘participation’. We need to be ‘motivated’ to do it (know the
benefits) and to take action, to practise it (the knowledge that we have a safe
space to reflect on it will help). We need to make an effort to initiate change
and to achieve it.
We
all need to incorporate some ‘ingredients’ to bring about change. We need
self-confidence and determination. Changes consume time (even weeks or years),
but the important thing is that when we have the knowledge, we should
immediately start to internalise and utilise it. Indeed, participation needs to
be practised in day-to-day life in order to understand its benefits rather than
only talked about theoretically.
In
the process of change we may come across many hurdles, but we need to sustain a
positive attitude and commitment to continue. We need to find a person with
whom to discuss our difficulties can be an asset. We can also recall our
achievements since the beginning of the process and be proud of our
accomplishments so far.
All
this form a ‘recipe’ for accepting the true meaning of participation. Until we
do this, participation will remain only a concept to preach, but it will not be
practised.
-Lansdown, G.
(2014) ‘25 years of UNCRC: Lessons Learned in Children’s Participation’. Canadian
Journal of Children’s Rights.
-Tisdall, E. K.
M., Gadda, A. & Butler, U. (2014) Introduction: Children and young people’s
participation in collective decision-making.
-Johnson, V.
(2015) ‘Valuing children’s knowledge: the politics of listening’. In: Eyben,
R., Guijt, I., Roche, C., Shutt, C.
[1]Le Borgne, C. (2016) Implementing
Children’s Participation at the Community Level: The Practices of Non-Governmental
Organisations. Thesis, (PhD), The University of Edinburgh.
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