This paper considers children’s participation in CP legislative and policy frameworks of Bulgaria, Ireland, Malta, Norway and Serbia. It proceeds by detailing the extent to which children are heard and facilitated with access to participate in practice.
This report recounts further consultation with children which took place to help shape NCCA’s development of the new curriculum specification for Wellbeing with children from Stages 3 and 4 (Third to Sixth Classes) in four primary schools between April and June 2023.
The rights of children and young people have gained prominence over recent years, spanning a range of settings and domains. In particular, the importance of eliciting, listening to and acting on the voices and views of children and young people has featured strongly in a range of legislative and policy documents. Internationally, this rights-based focus is particularly informed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The views of children and young people on creating guidance documents for policy makers and those who facilitate the participation of disabled children and young people in decision making, with a particular focus on those who use augmentative or alternative communication.
This literature review examines the available evidence concerning the participation of disabled children and young people in decision-making. This evidence is needed in order to inform the development of a toolkit on how to meaningfully and effectively involve disabled children and young people in the decision-making process and approach participative consultations and initiatives in the most accessible and inclusive way possible.
This article evaluates school meal policies in the UK and Ireland as a means to ensure the fulfilment of children’s right to food, as protected under international law. It adopts a comparative approach, assessing the varying strategies adopted across the two jurisdictions and their challenges. Whilst new developments, including the recent expansion of both hot meal provision in Ireland and universal free school meals in Wales and Scotland, are welcomed, the article argues that school meal policies across the UK and Ireland need to be radically rehauled if they are to make any headway in the realisation of children’s right to food.
Recent attempts to systematise the constitutional protection of children’s rights by creating constitutional typologies have been a useful first step in theorising this growing field. These efforts have focused on the wording of constitutions rather than their application, while forms of constitutional protection that are less textually explicit and more difficult to detect have received limited attention. By exploring the constitutional protection of children’s rights in France, this article demonstrates that some constitutions poor in explicit provisions on children’s rights can provide valuable protection through their general provisions. The article further argues that constitutional typologies of children’s rights protection should be expanded to encompass non-liberal constitutions.
Beyond Limits is the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) event for children and young people with disabilities and their families. It aims to show them the opportunities open to them, talk about the issues they want to talk about, and highlight inclusiveness. With Beyond Limits, we want to show how a fully inclusive event can be the rule and not the exception.
Policy agendas currently shape the identity of childhood and children’s role in society. They guide the development and delivery of children’s services across all domains of their life, including health, education and social welfare.
This article draws upon three studies which critically examined the concept of participation and children’s decision making in pre-court and custody and resettlement settings.