Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: This publication offers a practical
guide child participation with clear
checklists for child participation in
conferences and many concrete
examples
of recent initiatives.
In this Innocenti Insight, Gerison Lansdown examines the
meaning of
Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says
that children are entitled to participate in the decisions that
affect them. Lansdown takes a close look at the full meaning of
this
Article as a tool that can help children themselves to challenge
abuses of their rights and take action to defend those rights. She
also stresses what the Article does not do. It does not, for
example,
give children the right to ride roughshod over the rights of
others –
particularly parents. The Insight makes a strong case for listening
to children, outlining the implications of failing to do so and
challenging many of the arguments that have been levelled
against
child participation. It is, above all, a practical guide to this
issue, with clear checklists for child participation in conferences
and many concrete examples of recent initiatives.