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PurposeTo elicit stakeholder perspectives on the findings from our scoping review on youth participation in mental health policymaking, we conducted a global consultation with young people and adults directly involved in mental health policymaking.MethodForty-four stakeholders from 16 countries, including 15 young people, 9 policymakers and 20 facilitators of youth participation, took part in individual interviews and/or focus groups. They were asked about how the review findings contrasted with their own experiences in mental health policymaking. The transcribed data were thematically analyzed.ResultsAll participants viewed lived experience as valuable in identifying policy gaps. Youth pointed out that children and youth with disabilities, diverse sexual orientations, and/or gender identities were often excluded, and spoke about feelings of being an “accessory”, illustrating a lack of power-sharing in a tokenized policymaking process. Adult participants’ accounts highlighted the challenges inherent in policymaking such as the need for political knowledge and institutional time constraints. A range of cultural, socio-economic, and political barriers to youth participation, that were often context-specific, were identified.ConclusionsThe diverse perspectives of stakeholders extended the review results. Based on our findings, we recommend that adults and institutions: (1) recognize lived experience as expertise in shaping mental health policies; (2) include diverse groups; (3) reduce tokenistic relationships through the creation of safer spaces, adult feedback, co-production, and social accountability; and (4) adopt an intersectional approach to address cultural, socio-economic, and political barriers to participation. Methodologically, our work demonstrates why stakeholder consultations are an essential component of scoping reviews.

Over the last 30 years, remarkable efforts have been made to understand, support, and protect children and young people’s participation rights as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Despite these efforts, challenges remain consistently the same, such as tokenism, lack of sustainability, and accountability. This article reviews the progress and challenges for children and young people’s participation over the past 30 years. It then considers the potential of activism as a relatively novel concept for the children’s rights field. Drawing on activism literature more generally, and considering particular examples of child activism, the article explores the potential of identity politics and social movements to challenge adult power, growing on-line activism and the tension between best interests, protection and participation. The article concludes that activism recognises children as political actors and problem solvers. The article develops the idea of an ‘ecology of participation’, which values respectful intergenerational relationships that develop ‘critical social capital’ for child activism and multiple participation forms – ranging from the more conventional, to protest, to transformation – using a number of modes, such as the internet and social media. This more extended conceptualisation of children and young people’s participation builds on all the participation rights within the UNCRC, recognising them as minimum standards rather than final destinations, to create more expansive understandings and practices.

Purpose: Although youth participation is oft-acknowledged as underpinning mental health policy and service reform, little robust evidence exists about the participation of children and youth in mental health policymaking. Method: A scoping review based on Arksey and O’Malley’s framework was conducted to identify and synthesize available information on children and youth’s participation in mental health policymaking. Published studies up to November 30, 2020 were searched in Medline (OVID), PsycINFO (OVID), Scopus, and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (PROQUEST). Unpublished studies were identified through Google Scholar and targeted web searches October to December, 2020. Three reviewers performed screening and data extraction relevant to the review objective, followed by an online consultation.Results: From 2,981 records, 25 publications were included. A lack of diversity among the youth involved was found. Youth were often involved in situational analysis and policy design, but seldom in policy implementation and evaluation. Both the facilitators of and barriers to participation were multifaceted and interconnected. Despite a range of expected outcomes of participation for youth, adults, organizations, and communities, perceived and actual effects were neither substantially explored nor reported.Conclusions: Our recommendations for mental health policymaking highlight the inclusion of children and youth from diverse groups, and the creation of relational spaces that ensure safety, inclusiveness, and diversity. Identified future research directions are: the outcomes of youth participation in mental health policymaking, the role of adults, and more generally, how the mental health of children and youth shapes and is shaped by the policymaking process.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has now been in place for over thirty years and is widely ratified. However, as the UNCRC is operationalised, a number of practical, conceptual and ethical issues have emerged . For example, questions arise concerning children’s capacity and competence to make autonomous decisions, their involvement in dispute resolution and the relationship between the rights of children and those of their parents. Particular challenges arise in realising the rights of younger children and those with significant disabilities. The papers in this special edition explore these issues in relation to the UK and the wider international context, and also in different fields of social policy.

Given the importance of data skills to the economy, and the skills shortage within data science, educational policy makers have identified the importance of including technical and analytical data skills in the curriculum. An equally important aim is to educate children and young people to become data citizens who are aware of the current uses of data in society, able to use data to make decisions in their lives, and are actively engaged in critiquing the societal implications of future uses of data. The paper will explore the meanings of data citizenship, in light of the findings of a consultation with 96 children and young people (aged between 10 and 16 years old, from 11 schools in [blank for review]) and the wider conceptual debates on citizenship and children and young people’s rights to privacy, participation and education.

The chapter introduces the edited collection "Young people’s Participation in Europe. Revisiting Youth and Inequalities" reviewing the concepts of youth, participation and inequality.

The chapter summarises the main learning points of the edited collection "Young People's Participation: Revisiting Youth and Inequalities in Europe" suggesting ideas for future analysis of youth participation.

Children’s agency has become a popularised conceptual and practical concern, following the rise of the ‘new’ sociology of childhood and the wide-spread ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The promotion of children’s agency captured adults’ wish to recognise children in their own right, that children are social actors in their families, communities and societies, and that their participation rights need to be promoted. However, recent deliberations in childhood studies have encouraged a harder look at children’s agency on practical and theoretical grounds. This special journal issue addresses this agenda in three ways: to consider theoretical resources for re-framing agency and children’s agency and, in particular, to make it more empirically useful in research and practice; to consider underlying concepts (such as vulnerability and competence), and whether they limit or enhance children’s agency; and to develop alternative concepts, namely autonomy and self-determination, which may better support recognition of children as social actors and their rights.

Children's participation rights, enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), have been a popular area of research, policy and practice for decades. Despite a great deal of interest and activity, participation rights have posed a particular challenge to implement. In response, researchers have consistently called for more in-depth and nuanced analyses of the way participatory rights are actually lived and experienced by children and young people, within the complexity of interdependent relationships. However, there has been surprisingly little focus on the emotional relations of children's participation rights. The analytical links between emotions and participation rights are rarely the focus and, where emotions are discussed, they are rarely discussed as a central concern in their own right. This article provides a review of the field and identifies three ways in which making emotions a central concern can help to advance debates on children's participation rights: by helping to unsettle ‘traditional’ constructions of the child-adult binary, by increasing sensitivity to ethical and safeguarding issues, and by making visible and challenging intersectional power relations.

A children’s parliament can be defined as a formal structure for children and young people’s participation that meets on a regular or semi-regular basis. This is a working definition, as there is no single definition of children’s parliaments universally agreed upon. Very similar structures can be called different things, such as child councils, child forums, youth councils, and youth parliaments. For this entry, resources are included that refer to these and other terms but excludes structures only at school level. This entry concentrates on resources for children and young people under the age of eighteen, following the definition of the child in Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). However, there are far more resources on youth parliaments than on children’s parliaments, and youth parliaments frequently include young people below and above the age of eighteen. Thus, certain resources are included if the youth parliaments in question extend below the age of eighteen. Research evidence is illuminating but limited. Children’s parliaments can be found throughout the world, across all regions, sometimes championed by nongovernmental organizations (e.g., Ethiopia and India), while others supported by government (e.g., Finland, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States). They tend to involve older children and young people (i.e., over the age of twelve), although there are exceptions. For advocates, they are opportunities for children and young people to engage in democratic practices, influence decision-making, and develop personal skills and leadership qualities; for critics, they are tokenistic and unrepresentative structures that limit rather than further children and young people’s participation to influence decision-making collectively. The growth of children’s parliament was galvanized by the UNCRC and its participation rights. In particular, Article 12 of the UNCRC outlines children’s right “to express their views freely in all matters affecting the child,” and that these views be given “due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.” Children’s parliaments are one response to ensuring children’s views are expressed and given due weight in collective decision-making.

Aims and objectives: This paper explores children’s experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism in two contexts in Scotland, UK: a primary school with a high proportion of children using a language other than English at home; and a primary school where the language of instruction is an indigenous, minority language, Gaelic. Methodology: The paper draws upon data gathered from multiple qualitative methods, including interviews, group activities and discussion, with both children and their parents. The data in this paper draw upon a broader interdisciplinary project exploring children’s experiences of bilingualism. Ethics were duly considered. Data and analysis: Data were gathered from 27 children and 11 parents. Data were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Comparison between contexts was of particular interest for this article. Findings: This paper highlights the importance of research with children in order to gain an insight into their experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism. In particular, our findings illustrate how children’s language learning is encouraged and supported by children’s connections with others and the fundamental role of family (particularly parents/carers) and diverse community-based support systems (which encompass a wide range of individuals and community groups) in order to develop active bilingualism. Originality: This paper addresses a research gap in a largely quantitative field, by adopting a qualitative approach to explore children’s experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism. A qualitative approach facilitates attention to complexity and the participants’ own meanings and understandings. Significance: The paper highlights the value of research with children in order to explore their views and perspectives. In particular, qualitative research methodologies, where children’s experiences are central to understanding the research phenomenon, and to facilitating the exploration of the range of complex issues that interact with a child’s bilingualism.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has catalysed numerous jurisdictions to introduce new legal provisions to support children’s participation rights when child contact is contested. Despite this, children’s participation is frequently limited in practice, especially in contexts where children are perceived as vulnerable to a parent’s manipulation, even if there are allegations of domestic abuse. While ‘resist and refusal dynamics’ have yet to become mainstream terms in Scottish family law, ‘manipulation’ has become a common concern in cases of contested contact. Drawing on a Scottish empirical study on contested child contact in circumstances of domestic abuse, we interrogate the implications that the concept of manipulation has for children’s participation rights. The study involved separate in-depth interviews with 18 children and their 16 mothers. Findings point to concerns about upholding children’s participation rights, particularly in cases where children were depicted as “influenced” or “manipulated”. Through our analysis, we disentangle the problems professionals have when concerns about child manipulation and domestic abuse intersect. We argue that, when combined, allegations of manipulation and domestic abuse present a significant and serious risk to children’s participation rights. We find the legal construction of the child’s views as separate to the parental dispute to have unintended and serious consequences for children’s participation rights. We offer ways in which law and practice may evolve to ensure children’s participation rights in these contexts are both implemented and upheld.

Children and young people’s participation is an ever-growing demand. Thirty years on from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’s adoption, however, fundamental challenges continue for participation that are widely recognised cross-nationally but remain stubbornly consistent. As a way in to considering the children and young people’s participation literature more generally, all articles referring to participation in their titles were identified from The International Journal of Children’s Rights. These 56 articles were analysed to identify trends, challenges and opportunities. The analysis found: a remarkably consistent narrative on participation over the 30 years; limitations on domains considered, geography and conceptual clarity; and far more written about challenges than solutions. Drawing on these findings and considering the participation literature more generally, the article recommends that the field expands its geographic and intellectual boundaries, uses powerful concepts like agency, competency and autonomy with greater precision, and explores fresh ideas like child protoganism, activism and children as human rights defenders.

Nearly thirty years ago, the world recognised the participation rights of children with the adoption by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since then childhood researchers in the Global South and Global North have been at the forefront of promoting these rights. The increased involvement of children and youth in research has challenged ‘traditional’ adult research practices in numerous ways. This article explores the role and contributions of Child and Youth Advisory Committees (CYACs) in the research process. It discusses the establishment of CYACs and how they supported the International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP). The ICCRP began as a three-year multi-country research project addressing children’s rights to participation and protection and monitoring this connection internationally within several Global South and North countries: Brazil, Canada, China and South Africa. This article describes the creation and functioning of the ICCRP CYACs and the strengths, challenges, and creative processes in implementation. Findings presented relate to ethics regulation, differing expectations and assumptions about CYAC involvement, and virtual communication. These are discussed with the inclusion of adult researchers’ and the CYAC members’ perspectives. The article shares lessons learned about the role and significance of dialogue to support other child and youth advisory bodies in research at the local and global levels.

Galvanised by the un Convention on the Rights of the Child, many jurisdictions have introduced or strengthened children’s rights to participate in family law proceedings. Yet, the research and legal literature continues to show difficulties in implementation. According to the literature, decisions makers frequently view children as insufficiently competent or lacking in capacity to participate in proceedings or for much weight to be given to the children’s views. This article unpicks the concepts of competence and capacity, both in relevant literature and reported case law from Scotland. The article asks three questions: What are meant by competence and capacity? How are they used? Do the concepts enhance or detract from children’s participation rights? The article finds that competence is often casually used in the literature, alternative terms are used in reported case law (such as maturity), and judging capacity remains problematic in both law and practice. The article concludes that both concepts detract from children’s participation rights, as the concepts suggest competence and capacity are inherent to the child rather than contextual and relational. If the concepts were to be used, they should be subject to more critique and precise definition. However, children’s participation rights are more likely to be furthered by alternatives, such as fresh ideas about recognising and supporting people’s legal capacity within the un Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Recent debates about children’s participation rights, formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, primarily focus on ‘effectiveness’ of implementation. However, children’s participation remains problematic, its limited impact on adult power in decision-making or on the nature of decisions made persists, and implicated in both are reservations about children’s competence as participants. In respect of this, we analysed conceptualisations of competence in 67 articles, published between 2007 and 2017 in six childhood studies journals, in which ‘competence’ and its variations appear in the abstract. Although competence was rarely defined, conceptualisations were wide-ranging, covering competence as skills, as compliance with adult views, and as a trope signalling the field of childhood studies. As a result of our findings, we argue that epistemological clarity is vital for this concept to be useful regarding children’s participation and that attention must be paid to the different kinds of competences relevant for ‘effective’ participation.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the most ratified international human rights treaty. Yet problems continue about ensuring that children’s rights are recognised and supported in their daily lives. To this end, informal and formal efforts have been made for greater incorporation of the UNCRC into national law and policies. This special journal issue learns from these latest efforts, for the benefit of all human rights advocates in policy, practice and academia. The editorial outlines the contributions from eight articles, which were written by young people, practitioners who are directly influencing policy and practice, and academics from across the UK, Canada and Ireland with both national and international expertise. Written from different disciplines (including law, public policy and education), the special journal issue aims to enhance the critical evidence and strategic approach to implementing human rights in practice.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most ratified human rights convention in the world. There has been considerable progress in terms of incorporating these rights into domestic law, regional and local policies, and these rights are promoted in a host of projects and activities. However, cross-national research continues to show gaps in implementation and how particular rights are being enacted, claimed and realised in children’s lives. This article draws on theoretical developments on policy networks and Contribution Analysis (a theory-based model used to monitor and evaluate programmes) to examine and evaluate advocacy for children’s human rights. With the normative valuing of children’s human rights, such theoretical developments are rarely applied to advocacy – yet their practical, evidenced concepts have much to contribute. This article applies such concepts to recent developments in children’s human rights in Scotland. With the official national commitment to ‘making rights real’, Scotland is a fertile test case to examine what strategies are likely – or not likely – to result in embedding children’s rights legally and practically in their lives. The article concludes that successful advocacy needs to pay attention to which key actors are included or excluded from networks, to anticipate disruption and strategise accordingly, and to recognise the key role of the person who manages the network. Contribution Analysis adds attention to how policy is made and the benefits of collectively identifying a theory of change that can be monitored, modified and improved. Collaboration, dialogue and trust can ensure such a theory of change is ultimately successful: these require both attention to emotional connections and impact as well as evidence.

This introduction provides the rationale for the special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on the topic of the children’s right to participation and protection in international development and humanitarian efforts. It summarises selected contributions relating to an international conference entitled ‘Facilitating Child Participation in International Child Protection’ that took place 5–6 October 2015 at Ryerson University in Toronto (Canada). The concepts of child participation and child protection are explored. Then, the challenges and opportunities are highlighted regarding the actual and potential participatory role of children and young people in effective child protection. Finally, an overview of the articles included in this collection is provided.

There is ever-increasing global and local attention to children’s participation rights. As activities have proliferated, so have concerns about children’s participation having an impact on decision-making. This article looks to what can be learned conceptually and practically from children’s activism, which have examples where children have actively changed decisions in their communities. This article examines one such example, where groups of children in Bangladesh stopped the illegal marriages of children. Research was undertake with two Child Forums, involving 36 child activists. Further interviews were undertaken with girls whose marriages had been stopped and adults who had key roles in the child activism, such as local police officers and civil servants. The analysis finds that: (1) the legal context was critical to the child activists’ success, not because parents were arrested but because children could mobilise local officials; (2) the activism was collective rather than individualistic, supported by a nexus of relationships; (3) successes depended on children’s persistent and urgent activity, in order to mobilise other people’s attention and actions. The article concludes that the children’s participation field should attend to the conceptual lessons from activism and its practical contributions in: recognising the critical importance of the ‘shadow of the law’; building children’s political capital, and supporting the spaces and time for children to mobilise alongside educational demands.

Children’s wellbeing has moved from an academic field of interest to a policy and practice framework, internationally and in many countries. Children’s wellbeing tends to be twinned casually with children’s rights but recent Scottish legislation – the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 – has put children’s rights and children’s wellbeing in tension. This provides an opportunity to consider the concepts critically. The article scrutinises parliamentary debates and accompanying submissions, to reveal that children’s rights arguments failed due to political concerns about litigation and a lack of evidence that children’s rights improved children’s lives. Children’s wellbeing arguments were more successful, as children’s wellbeing continues the familiar trajectory of a needs-based approach. It has additional benefits of maximising outcomes, emphasising early intervention and prevention, and statistical development. It also risks being apolitical and professionally-driven, with no minimum standards and limited recourse for children’s and their families’ rights and complaints. These findings raise broader questions about how to argue for children’s rights in national and global contexts where children’s wellbeing has ever-increasing prominence, fuelled by calls for evidence-based policy and accountability via outcomes.

Children and young people’s participation in collective decision-making has become a popular policy and practice concern. Yet challenges persist, such as tokenism, limited impact and unsustainability. This article examines ways to address these challenges and realise children and young people’s participation, particularly in child protection contexts. Conceptually, the article investigates three popular ideas – vulnerability, social accountability and co-production. Each idea potentially suggests revised and more emancipatory relationships between the State and service users. Practically, the article matches these ideas to examples of children and young people’s participation. The article concludes that claims to vulnerability’s universality are persuasive; however, conceptualisations fail to address adult power. Social accountability addresses power, but insufficiently addresses the current challenges of participation. Co-production has the most potential, with participation examples that have been meaningful, effective and sustainable.

Galvanised by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, many jurisdictions now recognise children’s rights to participate in decisions that affect them. While such legal rights have increased, research on family law proceedings shows how children’s views can still be undermined, ignored or not even sought in decisions about them. This article uses the academic resources of childhood studies, to consider dominant and alternative narratives of children’s participation within Scottish family law. Drawing upon reported case law and empirical research, the article concludes that children’s participation gains protection by being institutionalised but children’s participation is attenuated because it is not recognised as relational and contextual. As rationality, consistency and autonomy are privileged, the weight given to children’s views is lessened by concerns about children being manipulated or distressed. Courts and their decisions may be child-focused, centring on children’s welfare, but they are not child-inclusive, involving children in decision-making.

Children and young people's participation in public decision-making is now firmly on international and national agendas. This article concludes the special issue on such participation, by discussing three central issues for children and young people's participation: what is counted – or discounted – as legitimate forms of participation; the potential usefulness of theorisations of governance, citizenship and social capital; and how the roles of adults (participation workers) can be understood. The article celebrates the success of the rhetorical push for children and young people's participation, while suggesting that the tensions and dilemmas of current practice and policy need to be addressed by new and revitalised ideas and challenging theorisations.