What does it mean to have a
right of participation?
DAVID ARCHARD
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Different kinds of political participation
(1) The parents vote
and the children’s
interests count
(2) The child is a
future voter
(3) Children play at
voting
(4) Children’s
parliaments
A right to participate
 UNCRC Article 12
 1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of
forming his or her own views the right to express those views
freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child
being given due weight in accordance with the age and
maturity of the child.
 2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided
the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative
proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a
representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent
with the procedural rules of national law.
 Will say something about participation and something about
what it means to have a right
Participation
 Participation is literally taking part or playing one’s
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part – in a process (or a practice) which leads to an
outcome.
To be a participant is to be someone who contributes
in some way and to some extent to an
outcome/result
One participates with others
Alone I decide what book I am going to read next;
In a book club I participate in the collective choice of
our next book to read
Two important questions about participation: (1)
 SCOPE: What is being decided?
 Children participate in decision-making processes about
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their own interests and lives
By contrast adults do not participate in decision-making
about what affects them alone
Consider a divorce and custody dispute:
We would not ask adult parties to ‘participate’ in a
discussion about whether or not to stay married;
whereas,
We would ask a child which parent she wants to live with
Two important questions about participation: (1)
 SCOPE: How are we deciding?
 This is the question of how far the process in which
people participate is itself open to collective
determination.
 Thus individual citizens do play a role in setting the
terms under which they are citizens;
 Whereas children are participants in process they did
not choose
Two important questions about participation: (2)
 Degree of participation
 How does one
contribute?
 What part if any does
one play in determining
an outcome?
‘Ladder of participation’
 Relevant is the influential ‘ladder’ of participation
devised originally by Sherry Arnstein which runs
from manipulation up to citizen control.
 Arnstein’s is an eight step or rung ladder but
obviously it can be made more or less sophisticated.
 Basic distinction between: merely being
heard/consulted and playing a part (co-determinant)
 So the obvious worry that children will be heard but
not be co-agents
Key questions
 What exactly does it means to say that a child
participates?
 How does it participate?
 What matters does a child play a part in deciding?
 Does a child co-determine how it participates and
what matters it co-determines?
What is a right?
 In simple terms: whatever protects an interest of
sufficient importance that it makes sense to put
others under a duty
 My right to life protects something of sufficient
importance (my life!) that it makes sense to hold that
everyone else has a duty not to kill me
 That duty can be enforced (e.g. criminal punishment
of [attempted] murderers)
The right to speak
 A child’s right to speak
(participate) is not a
 Right authoritatively to
determine an outcome
 But it is more than a
right simply to be heard
 It is a right that
recognises the child as an
independent source of
views and interests
Having and exercising rights
 It is one thing to possess a right; and
 It is another thing to exercise that right
 So there are duties to ensure that a child has the
right to participate (e.g. statutory provision; law);
and
 Duties to ensure that a child can exercise that right:
 Education; institutions
Participation and best interests
 UNCRC Article 3 1. In all actions concerning
children, whether undertaken by public or private
social welfare institutions, courts of law,
administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the
best interests of the child shall be a primary
consideration.
 How do we balance a right to participate (=codetermine an outcome) against the best interests of a
child?
Child and medical treatment
 A medical judgment as to
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what is best for the child
Parental agreement
A child does not wish to
have the procedure
Grant that provision of
information is
important; as is
The child’s assent
What role does a child’s
right to express a view
play?
Balancing act: different possibilities
 Best interests (always) take precedence over a child’s
views
 A child’s participation is a way to find out what is in
her best interests
 A child’s views is an element of her best interests
 The best interests of the child influence the weight
we give to the views of the child: the poorer the views
the less weight they are given
Key questions
 What does it mean to speak of a right to
participation?
 Is it a right simply to be heard or to co-determine (to
some degree) some outcomes?
 How do we weigh the right to participate – however
that is understood – against the child’s best
interests?
Summary: a right to participate?
 To understand exactly what such a right involves, we
need to be much clearer about
 What exactly it means to participate
 What exactly it means to say that one has a right to
participate
 And what exactly it means to say that one has a right
to participate and has best interests that should be
promoted