Approaches on promoting child and adolescent participation

Abstract

Participation in itself promotes individual autonomy and collective empowerment, and strengthens democracy in our societies. Recognised as a universal human right (1948), the right to participate is protected for child citizenship by international legislation introduced in the middle and last third of the twentieth century, which identifies children as subjects of rights. Studies on child and adolescent participation are based on the child rights-based approach, which recognises that children and adolescents are subjects of rights and social actors. This article set out to carry out a theoretical systematisation exercise on participation in general, focusing on child participation in particular, in light of other approaches considered complementary to the rights-based approach, but which have scarcely been used: Capabilities approach, the feminist approach and the intercultural approach based on a socio-critical reading. The results of the theoretical-conceptual analysis made it possible to link the concept of participation to those of agency and autonomy, as well as to highlight the inertia and cultural and institutional barriers that limit citizen participation processes, with special emphasis on the citizenship of women, children and adolescents. It is concluded that the participation of children refers to participation in an individual, collective and national capacity, presented and limited by binary or patriarchal and adult-centric stereotypes. These three approaches invite us, in short, to rethink child and adolescent participation and participatory practices in childhood based on the values of autonomy, responsibility, equality and diversity.