FACTFILE: Children and the right to vote

Submitted by crinadmin on

Summary: This factfile is one of a series of briefings on different children's rights issues.

What is the issue?

  • Should children be able to vote? If so, at what age?

Facts

  • Children (people under the age of 18) have the right to vote in a number of countries including Sudan, Austria, Brazil and in some states of Germany.

Key points

  • People acquire the ability to discuss, assess and make decisions about politics much earlier than popular opinion imagines.
  • Children have rational thoughts and make informed choices. They often display very sophisticated decision-making abilities, for example when dealing with a bully at school or an abusive parent.
  • The exclusion of children from decision-making is unfair because they can do nothing to change the conditions that exclude them.
  • There have been campaigns in many countries calling for the lowering of the age at which people have the right to vote.
  • While it is true that research shows that the electoral preferences of parents form a powerful influence on children's voting patterns, these influences persist whether we are ten, twenty, fifty or eighty years of age.

Find out in which countries children can vote here: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20973

Read more arguments in favour of children's right to vote here: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22837

Key quotes

  • "Children should not be prevented from making decisions simply because they might make the wrong ones. It is important not to confuse the right to do something with doing the right thing." Professor Bob Franklin, http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?ID=22837
  • "No political theory is adequate unless it is applicable to children as well as to men and women." Philosopher Bertrand Russell (1)
  • "To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves...and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted" Educationalist John Holt (2)

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Footnotes

1. Russell, Bertrand. Principles of Social Reconstruction. London: Allen and Unwin, 1971

2. John Holt, How Children Learn, Pitman 1967

pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Factfile_voting.pdf

Articles: 
Article 13: Freedom of expression
Article 17: Access to appropriate information
Organisation: 
Child Rights International Network
Attachment Link: 
http://www.crin.org/docs/Factfile_voting.pdf
Link : 

Countries

    Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.