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Home > Children as Partners Alliance About the Children As Partners Alliance "It
is not enough just to save the children; we have to prepare them to save
us." Related Links| Children as Partners Alliance | The vision and commitment | Aims | Consultations Children as Partners is an evolving international initiative focused on advancing meaningful child participation at all levels of decision-making. A gathering of international and national NGOs, academics, government representatives, musicians, and children and young people and adults working on children's participation met in Victoria in August 2002 to discuss a proposal to develop an international resource and research forum, to share and extend existing experience and expertise on children's participation. A consensus emerged that this initiative was needed. Discussion took place on the immediate priorities and processes necessary for taking them forward. This meeting included representatives of key international children's rights organisations including:
A new coalition was proposed at this meeting, initially to be called the Children as Partners Alliance (CAPA). Its vision is to build on existing experiences and developments by sharing information between many different kinds of groups working on children's participation at the local, national and international levels. Each child is unique and has inherent value as a human being with the right to respect for their human dignity. The child is an essential being of our communities with the right to be heard and considered in all matters and decisions concerning him or her. This recognition is embedded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and reflected in many of its articles, in particular, Article 12, which has been identified as one its underlying principles by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Convention in its entirety must be understood in the broader context of the culture of human rights developed over the last 40 years. The right to be listened to and taken seriously is a human right which applies to children in the same way as it does to adults. It is fundamental both as a core right and as a tool necessary to progress the realisation of other rights. And participation as a human right is increasingly recognised as an integral element in human development. Furthermore, respecting participatory rights is vital to the harmonious development of the child. Participatory processes facilitate the creation of an environment of increased mutual respect and understanding between children and adults in all issues that affect their lives and the society they live in. And the right to participate extends to all girls and boys, irrespective of age and without discrimination on any grounds. There is global evidence of children having demonstrated their ability to be effective partners with adults, working together towards shared objectives in a wide range of activities at all levels. The committed efforts of NGOs, civil society, governments, international organisations, and others, in developing standards and practices of children's participation for respectful dialogue, has been central to this process. They have successfully advocated the increasing inclusion of child participation on the national and international agenda. The lessons learned from these initiatives have required adults to re-assess their assumptions about children's capacities, their role in society and the value of their contribution. These developments were manifested and accorded global recognition at the Special Session in New York in 2002 where children and young people made an outstanding contribution as key actors in all events including the General Assembly itself. Participatory processes with children have potential benefits for the whole of society. They result in better decisions and outcomes in the family, the school, the local community and in policies, services and programmes: decisions should always be based on the fullest possible information and children have a special contribution to make by bringing their unique perspectives and experiences. Participation protects children more effectively from exploitation and abuse: by understanding and respecting children's own experience, better protection mechanisms can be created and children themselves can become active agents in their own protection. It enables children to understand, experience and value the importance of democratic decision-making processes, by providing positive models of constructive shared dialogue. It helps to build and develop a culture of recognition of children as independent and individual bearers of rights, with positive implications for their self- esteem and sense of identity. Despite the evidence of its beneficial impact, participation as yet is far from a reality for the majority of the world's children. Even where children do participate, there is concern that it is too often tokenistic, characterised by ineffective processes, lack of follow-up, insufficient commitment of resources and lack of recognition by most of the world's governments. Many adults have yet to recognise, let alone internalise the value of working with children as partners. There is a need to develop child-friendly processes to allow effective participation by children and create 'spaces' which are sensitive to the needs of children of different ages - environments, language of communication, time-scales and methods of working together. And greater emphasis needs to be invested in the preparatory process of taking children's participation forward, through dialogue within families, communities and institutions. Ethical standards and tools are needed to build effective processes for participation. A new language of communication is needed to promote a culture of change for partnership with children. There are many national, regional and international initiatives supporting children's participation by a range of agencies, but there is no forum through which these experiences are being drawn together, analysed, disseminated and fostered. There is therefore a need for a strong international resource group to spearhead the convergence of children's and adults' accumulated experience and expertise to enhance children's participation. Children As Partners Alliance (CAPA) is proposed to be established to serve this function. It will be an international research and resource alliance that aims to:
The Children As Partners (CAP) would like to consult with children and young people, as well as civil society on the future of 'Children As Partners'. CAP is a global initiative that seeks to encourage and support partnership between all those working to make a reality of children's right to participation. Children, young people, civil society organisations and interested adults are key stakeholders in Children As Partners. Prior to moving forward with the CAP initiative, they would like to hear the child rights community. In order to secure feedback, please download the consultation papers as follows:
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