In the afternoon session of Day 1 of the forum, the young people broke into two groups to discuss the two themes that are going to be discussed on Friday at the Day of General Discussion:
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Children as active participants in society: the child’s right to express views in various settings, such as the family, school, associations and politics, and become active participants in decision making processes in these settings.
Group 1
In the children’s own words…
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In England, children can be heard in divorce cases. They go to a different room and talk to a camera so their views are heard. They can say whether they want to live with their mother or father, but the court decides and don’t always respect the child’s wish. Children are sometimes not aware of how children can participate.
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In India, when a man leaves his wife and marries another woman, he doesn’t consult with his children in choosing his second wife, who will be the children’s stepmother.
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Children should have the opportunity to sit in local municipal or community meetings at the village level and take part in decisions.
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Children 16 years of age pay taxes but cannot vote and we can be enlisted in the army and go to war.
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Instead of police picking up children who have committed minor crimes and criminalising them and putting them in prison, there should be a local board established to look into minor offences committed by children.
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How is it decided whether a child is mature or not and who decides? It needs to be made sure that adults don’t just listen to us but take our views into account and do something about it.
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More people should be consulted and know about children’s issues and contribute towards improving the situation
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Children don’t get opportunities to participate in meetings and consultations.
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All children should participate actively but in many countries this is not permitted.
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Can adults measure children’s participation? No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! Children should be given a platform to voice their opinions. It can be a newspaper or any such media.
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Different people from different countries, cultures, religions etc should make a big network. NGOs need to work together and make events. Human rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child need to be included in schools’ lesson plans.
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Children should be involved / take part in decisions about how money is spent in the community from start to finish.
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Children should have their say in the type of school they go to.
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Children can be equal participants in society by joining each and every youth conference or meeting in the society.
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Children should have a say in the location of the water pump in the community.
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Children are an integral part of society, they should realise their importance and the power of their voices. Schools can play a pivotal role in making them realise this.
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Participation is involving others and making decisions together with other children. Bangladeshi children have been active in advocacy.
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I think that if young people want to be heard they must be responsible and adults can give a help to make this together because working together is better.
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Children’s groups must be recognised as any other adult group and at the same level because many of them are very important like “Petapa” “Radio gunneyi” “Caja nagica” and many others because they bring something to anybody who follow it!
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In our community parents don’t get their children immunity. We identified such families and took them to camps. Now parents themselves take their kids to camps. When kids understand the issue so should they.
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By participating in meetings, workshops, seminars, forums, cultural activities, sports, schools, children’s associations, festivals, family, community, government.
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Participation includes our direct involvement in all contexts so we have more consideration of adults and we acquire superior responsibility.
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Stop child beatings in school. Respect children’s views and ideas, in schools, family, communities. Adults must be aware of children’s rights.
Group 2
Many of the participants felt that children should have the right to vote. Below are some of the comments and experiences young people shared about participation in politics in their own countries:
In England children are not allowed to participate in politics. They do not have the right to vote until they are 18 years old. Before then, young people are only allowed to participate in a tokenistic way, for example in the UK Youth Parliament, which is useless and has no power at all. In response to this situation, young people have set up a Vote at 16 movement. Lots of young people think that they should be able to vote at 16 in England because they pay taxes at 16, they are allowed to fight at 16, and get married and yet they are not allowed to vote.
In Norway, young people can pay taxes at 16 so they should be allowed to have a say about where that money goes. Also, the age of criminal responsibility is 16, so if they are old enough to take responsibility for their actions, they are old enough to vote.
In the Bolivian constitution there is an article that says citizens are people above 18. One of obstacles there is that young people cannot participate in active ways. However, young people are organising themselves to try to find more spaces where they can really have their opinion taken into account.
In Canada when national elections approach, there is usually some discussion about changing the voting age, but the solution is usually just to create youth councils that are not very effective.
Governments say that children don’t understand politics so shouldn’t be allowed to influence it. Politics should be encouraged in the early years of high school.
In the children's own words:
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At 16, people need to pay taxes but are not allowed to vote
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UK media stigmatise children and young people through ASBOS (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders)
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We can measure our participation when adults and kids come to us for advice
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Democratic rights lead to democratic engagement
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Problem: General tokenistic participation
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The mutual value of the opinion of children and adults
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La valoración mutua (adulto-niño) de las opiniones
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Children shall have the right to be heard in issues that affect them
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Consenso entre las organizaciones de NNA e infancia
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The child shall have the right to freedom of expression
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Todos los niños tenemos el derecho a ser escuchado por la sociedad pero en realidad no lo somos
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Que todos los niños y las niñas participamos en nuestras comunidades y países para demostrarles a los adultos que también nosotros podemos.
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Unfortunately I believe that for children to be taken seriously by adults they cannot act childishly and must attempt to be on the same level as the adults
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Children have the right to tell their opinion through media but they also have the right to be protected. Where is the balance?
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Los niños pueden crear sus propios proyectos porque ellos conocen la realidad y porque tienen derecho a opinar y ser escuchado
