Author: Dr Patricio Cuevas-Parra

Director of Child Participation and Rights, World Vision/Honorary Fellow, Moray House School of Education and Sport

A few months ago, I released my recent book Children’s Participation in the Context of Inequalities: Confronting Children’s Agency, Social Positioning and Power Disparities. In this work, I examine how inequalities and social identities influence the operationalisation of children’s and young people’s participation rights. Children’s social positioning remains subordinated to multiple systems of domination, including patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and intergenerational power relations.

Throughout the book, I present several case studies illustrating how children and young people have organised themselves to create opportunities for participation in contexts where conventional spaces for public decision-making are neither accessible to, nor designed for, them. Such spaces are typically developed for adult engagement and therefore tend to exclude children and young people, as the settings in which these processes occur are often characterised by inequalities, power imbalances, and intersecting social identities. For instance, some children are excluded on the basis of gender, others are marginalised due to specific needs or disabilities, and many more are stigmatised through race-based discriminatory practices and attitudes that lead to social and cultural exclusion.

For instance, during research conducted in Brazil, several children and young people explained that their identities as Afro-descendants, from low-income backgrounds, and residing in the outskirts of the city were decisive in excluding them from equal participation in society—where those who were whiter and better off were more likely to access opportunities. Similarly, in Uganda, children and young people observed that their gender, ethnicity, and religion were key factors shaping their chances of having their views known and taken into account.

These examples underscore the urgency of situating participation rights within the principles of non-discrimination and equality, while critically questioning the universality of the standards articulated in the UNCRC, which are predominantly informed by a Western conception of childhood. As a childhood studies’ scholar, I recognise and value the UNCRC as a foundational global policy instrument that safeguards a wide spectrum of children’s human rights—from provision and protection to participation. Nevertheless, I contend that the realisation of these rights must acknowledge diversity and take into account children and young people’s distinct lived experiences, which are shaped by their varying cultural, political, and social contexts.

To illustrate this point, the girls I interviewed in Sierra Leone explained that they were fully aware of their children’s human rights as children; however, they perceived that adults understood these rights differently, as their interpretations were shaped by historical, cultural, and traditional values. The girls emphasised that they—more often than boys—needed to challenge these entrenched structures by constructing their own narratives and developing emancipatory strategies to confront power and marginalisation. For example, they promoted the importance of keeping girls in school as a way to reduce child marriage and advocated for girls’ empowerment as a means to address gender disparities within their communities.

Lastly, I am confident that the case studies examined in this book demonstrate the need to reconceptualise the right to participation and to address the complexities surrounding its implementation. This requires attention to the intersections between context, cultural and social norms, and the diverse social identities of children and young people. Across the chapters, the case studies illustrate how children and young people created their own spaces for participation within restrictive and, at times, unsupportive environments, and how they shifted from traditional forms of engagement to child-led activism as a means of asserting their recognition as competent social actors.

References

Cheney, K. (2018) ‘Decolonizing Childhood Studies: Overcoming Patriarchy and Prejudice in Child-related Research and Practice’, in Reimagining Childhood Studies, London, United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing.

Konstantoni, K. (2022) ‘Radical democratic citizenship at the edge of life: Young children, cafés and intergenerational and intersectional activism’, Identities, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 80–87 [Online]. DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2021.2017591.

Liebel, M. (2021) Decolonizing childhoods: From exclusion to dignity, Policy Press scholarship online, Bristol, Policy Press.

Tisdall, E. K. M. (2021) ‘Meaningful, Effective and Sustainable? Challenges for children and young people’s participation’, in Bruselius-Jensen, M., Pitti, I., and Tisdall, E. K. M. (eds), Young People’s Participation: Revisiting Youth and Inequalities in Europe, Bristol, UK, Bristol Press.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A. (2023) ‘Adults in Charge: The Limits of Formal Child Participatory Processes for Societal Transformation’, in Sandin, B., Josefsson, J., Hanson, K., and Balagopalan, S. (eds), The Politics of Children’s Rights and Representation, Studies in Childhood and Youth, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 59–80.

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