Children's Participation Rights Research Articles

Kindesschutz- und Jugendstrafverfahren als Schauplätze geschlechtlicher Subjektivierungsprozesse

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag erweitert die Diskussion um die Partizipationsrechte von Kindern um die Dimension „Geschlecht“ und verwendet eine Sichtweise auf das Verfahren als Schauplatz geschlechtlicher Subjektivierungsprozesse. Anhand ausgewählter Ergebnisse einer in der Schweiz durchgeführten vergleichenden Untersuchung von Jugendstraf- und Kindesschutzverfahren, die beide die außerfamiliäre Platzierung von Kindern und Jugendlichen zum Gegenstand haben, wird aufgezeigt, wie die beiden Verfahrenstypen am gesamtgesellschaftlichen Projekt der geschlechtsspezifischen Sozialisation von Kindern mitwirken. Das Jugendstrafverfahren wird in Bezug auf die von Behördenseite im Lauf des Verfahrens geführte Anzahl von Gesprächen mit Kind und/oder Eltern als kindzentriert charakterisiert. Seine diskursive Fokussierung auf die Überwindung von Delinquenz und die Einübung von Selbstkontrolle wird als Ausrichtung an männlichen Sozialisationsformen verstanden. Das Kindesschutzverfahren auf der anderen Seite berücksichtigt rein quantitativ Kinder und Eltern durchschnittlich etwa in gleichem Maß, ist also familienzentriert. Auf der diskursiven Ebene unterstützt es durch sein Bild des abhängigen und schutzbedürftigen Kindes ein Ideal weiblicher Sozialisation, das Mädchen und Frauen in erster Linie in Beziehung zu anderen Menschen definiert.

Children between liberation and care: ethical perspectives on the rights of children and parent–child relationships

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is accepted in nearly all countries in the world although the idea of children’s rights is still much discussed. The author distinguishes two perspectives for interpreting the children’s rights’ convention correlated with different child images. On the one hand there is the ‘caretaker perspective’, mainly based on the idea that children are weak, vulnerable and need to be socialised in order to function in society. On the other hand there is the ‘child liberator perspective’, which argues that children not only need adequate care, but also the freedom to express their own thoughts. This perspective focuses on participation rights of children. The author shows the relevance of both perspectives and explains how the ‘child liberator perspective’, based on the idea that children are competent subjects, has greater plausibility. She elaborates bridges between the perspectives of care and liberation, thereby discussing the idea of ‘liberation’, ‘intrinsic value of children’, and ‘responsibility’.

The right of the child to be heard in education litigation: an analysis of the ‘intelligent design’ Pennsylvania case on the separation of Church and State in the public schools

This paper examines a seminal case in US education law regarding the separation of Church and State in the public schools. The issue decided was whether it is constitutional under American law for a school district to mandate reference to ‘intelligent design’ (ID) as an alternative to the theory of evolution whilst instructing students only in the latter. ID theory postulates an unspecified ‘master intelligence’ as being responsible for the origins of life. A Pennsylvania court found that ID was a religious theory and held the school district had officially endorsed ID contrary to constitutional requirements. The issue of children's participation rights was not raised by the parties or the Court and student views were not solicited. The reasons for this failure to allow students to be heard in the judicial proceedings are explored as are the implications for how the notion of children's rights is understood in North America.

Children Taken Seriously in Theory, Policy and Practice

by Jan Mason and Toby Fattore ( eds ) London : Jessica Kingsley , 2005 ISBN 1843102501 , 272 pp , £22.95 (pb) Over recent years the issue of children's participation rights has been the subject of much debate and interest among academics, policy makers and practitioners alike. To date, however, there are few publications which draw together the contributions of these different stakeholders in their attempts to progress this issue and address some of the barriers they face along the way. This current edited collection, part of the Children in Charge series, aims to address this gap. It brings together the contributions of a range of stakeholders working with children and is organised under three sections – namely theory, policy and practice. The four chapters which comprise Section One (Theory) seek to draw attention to recent developments regarding theoretical frameworks used to conceptualise children and childhood. The chapter by Fattore and Turnball provides new ways of theorising children's participation through the development of the concept of communicative action using the work of Habermas and Merleau-Ponty as a starting point. The chapter by Alanen is also useful in its exploration of the concept of generation in understanding the relational processes by which childhood comes to be defined, understood and experienced. In Section Two (Policy) the reader is introduced to a range of social policy issues over five chapters concerning children. These include health and education, child protection, physical ‘discipline’ and working children. The section is linked by two main themes: an examination of the discourses regarding children and childhood which underpin the various policy responses and by which the negative views of children and their capacities have been reinforced; and a presentation of the accounts of children which provide a challenge to these dominant views. Of the five chapters, those by Mayall and Miljeteig are particularly notable in their inclusion of pointers to further increase the visibility of children's accounts. In Section Three (Practice) there are eight chapters which consider children's perspectives and capacities. Interestingly, while one chapter focuses on family group conferencing, all of the remainder focus on children in different school settings. This might be a disappointment to practitioners in other areas. However, from the range of practice issues raised, including children's participation in their own assessments of learning and children's perspectives on technology, important themes emerge which can be transferred to a range of practice settings. These centre on the social agency of children and those factors which either encourage or impede the expression and recognition of this. Overall, the book presents an accessible and stimulating collection of contributions to illustrate the social agency of children and draws attention to developments, at the levels of theory, policy and practice, which seek to embrace the abilities and contributions of children through the development of partnerships with them. While the themes and issues covered are not particularly new, the book does represent a useful summary. As the book vividly illustrates, while there have been improvements in relation to recognising and facilitating children's participation rights, much still needs to be done. Finally, while this is certainly a welcome collection, it is worth drawing attention to three limitations. The first is the uncritical use of the terms children and childhood which creates the impression of a homogenous concept and experience that is ‘childhood’. There is, of course, great diversity according to children's ethnicity, disability, religion, language, social class, age, gender, locality, social context and family circumstances which themselves vary across time, space and place. A second and related limitation is that, apart from considering children's social agency, the book does not address the fact that the likelihood of children being taken seriously will vary according to the influence of the complex and inter-related social variables outlined above. Third, these particular complexities and others emerging from the various contributions might usefully have been highlighted in a final chapter to help focus the reader on what progress has been achieved and what still needs to be done. These themes could have been drawn together in the form of a framework or agenda for readers to ‘take with them’ into their own spheres of influence. These limitations apart, this is a clear and accessible book that usefully draws together and summarises current themes relating to children's participation rights. It therefore deserves to be read widely.

Promoting the participation rights of children and young people in family group conferences

Family Group Conferences are being used in a range of decision making forums around the world. They operate with an empowering methodology that enables service users to participate in decision making. For children and young people however the empowering potential may be minimised by the fact that it is an adult decision making forum. The need for advocates to support children and young people in these meetings has been recognised and this paper uses the experiences of a Barnardos Family Group Conference Project in Wiltshire to identify the benefit of advocacy support. It argues that all children and young people involved in Conferences should have the right of access to an independent advocate to enable them to participate.

The Active Child Citizen: Lessons from Canadian Policy and the Children's Movement

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has advanced a model of active citizenry for children, which is difficult to reconcile with the still dominant Western notions of childhood that fetishize innocence and attribute passivity and incompetence to children. This article explores the manner in which state policy, Canadian courts, and children's politics in Canada have responded to the imaginary of the active child citizen. The Canadian government has provided limited political space to young people and has narrowly construed children's participation rights as limited to family law and juvenile justice. The reluctance of adult decision-makers to open up policy-making to the contributions of children has been further hindered by the current anti-democratic cast of neo-liberal governance. This article examines how quasi-judicial tribunals and the Canadian courts have invoked the Convention in their dealings with child asylum seekers, only to construct childhood participation and childhood protection as mutually exclusive. The article concludes with a brief exploration of the alternative model of children's citizenship revealed by the children's movement organization, Free the Children. In contrast to the relative failure of adult decision-makers to implement the participation rights of children, the contemporary children's movement advances a view of children as empowered, knowledgeable, compassionate and global citizens, who are nonetheless, like other marginalized groups, in need of special, group-differentiated protections.

Inclusion, exclusion and children's rights

This case study examines the experiences of a student who was excluded twice from a mainstream school while preparing for GCSE examinations. The authors are the student and his aunt. The exclusions were for an indefinite period and were triggered as a result of the school's inability to respond adequately to recurring epileptic seizures. The student, who has Asperger syndrome and a statement of special educational needs, had not broken any disciplinary code. Teachers' understanding of the label ‘special educational needs’ is questioned. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 has far-reaching implications for school ethos and culture. Schools' failure to anticipate the needs of students with disabilities or SEN may well lead to unlawful discrimination. Inclusive schools will need to recognize that in meeting students' individual needs the institution itself may need to change. Barriers to genuine parent partnership in education must be overcome, and children's participation rights, as confirmed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, must be respected.

Felt tip pens and school councils: children's participation rights in four English schools

The United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child has created practical challenges for nation states and institutions particularly in relation to children's rights to participation. The limited research that is available has tended to use survey methodology; qualitative accounts of children's daily lives are rare. The present study investigated the nature of children's participation in their education in two primary and two secondary schools; in particular the right to express views freely in all matters affecting the child. The study found that children's opportunities to express their views were extremely limited even when school councils were in place. It is concluded that the goal of active citizenship espoused by recent national curriculum developments will remain illusive unless educational practice changes to a focus on school processes rather than products. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Realizing Human Rights of Women and Children: Some reflections on law and policy

Savitri Goonesekere discusses the interconnectedness of legal and policy approaches in realizing women's rights and children's rights agendas. Goonesekere focuses on the concept of equality and non-discrimination in both conventions. She deals with the various aspects of children's survival and development rights, and violence against women and children's participation and protection rights. She concludes that there are significant areas of complementarity because the overarching and contemporary human rights framework can be used to resolve any conflicts in these agendas.

Breaking barriers—provision and participation in an out‐of‐school centre

This paper uses a research and development project – the A Space project in Hackney – as an exemplar for discussion of policy and practice issues arising from the recent expansion of out‐of‐school child care and study support services. In particular, the authors explore children's participation rights and multi‐agency working, two key principles upon which A Space is based. The paper suggests that current government out‐of‐school policy raises key questions about the siting, staffing, coordination and costs of future services; and that underlying these are more fundamental questions about: how children should be spending their time; and whose perspectives on this should be taken into account. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Children's competency to consent: an ethical dilemma.

The application of the best interests principle in current legislation creates an ethical dilemma in relation to children's consent to treatment. The guiding principle of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) symbolises a formal expression of children's participation rights. Children's rights to consent to treatment are granted on socially determined ideals of competency. Children's participation in health care is increasingly advocated in legislation but many barriers remain. Nurses can facilitate children's participation through communicating information and creating partnerships with children.

Målfrid Grude Flekkøy and Natalie Hevener Kaufman, The Participation Rights of Children: Rights and Responsibilities in Family and Society

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