The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that a child who is capable of forming his or her own views has the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child. The Convention also guarantees a child freedom of expression, and the rights of free association and peaceful assembly. (The Convention applies to any human being under the age of 18.)
CIESPI has a long history of researching and promoting what is commonly known as child participation and is currently involved in a multi-national study to monitor child participation in the area of child protection. And the aftermath of the tragic shooting by a lone gunman using an AR 15 rifle and firing 100 bullets in just over six minutes at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida demonstrates the extraordinary effectiveness of child expression, free association and the right to assemble.
CIESPI with its partners in Canada, Scotland, South Africa and China has embarked on a multi-year study of child participation in the area of child protection*. The particular CIESPI role will be to monitor the quality of child participation in the Children’s Rights Council of Rio de Janeiro (a federally mandated body charged with monitoring and proposing children’s policies and public budgets for children). In particular, CIESPI will monitor the official state forum on children and the initiative of the youth group Juventude Carioca em Ação or Carioca Youth in Action. CIESPI and the international research team is interested in whether the young people’s participation is meaningful in terms of their voices being heard and considered.
The Parkland, Florida shooting just a month later is seen as fomenting youth action on the scale of the US Civil Rights Movement, and the anti-Vietnam War protests both of which saw massive youth involvement. Young leaders from the school, fighting their grief and shock and speaking through their tears, with the help of some adult groups, organized first in Florida and then across the nation under such slogans as Never Again, Enough is Enough, and Fight for your Lives. On Saturday, March 24, a massive gun regulation demonstration occurred in Washington, D.C., supported by 800 demonstrations across the States and indeed across the world including in Brazil.
The young people from Parkland who attend a middle-class school where debate and speech are important parts of the curriculum also reached out effectively to lower-income minority students in the US who suffer more from the daily toll of handgun murders. Moreover, the Parkland youth clearly learned their lesson on organizing, developing a short, concrete agenda for change including a complete ban on military style weapons and effective background checks on all gun purchasers. They have also set their sights on the upcoming federal House and Senate elections on any candidate receiving election campaign contributions from the notorious NRA or National Rifle Association. A number of states have already changed their laws, albeit in minor ways, to reflect the demands.
The young people’s response to the Parkland murders adds an important emphasis to the UN Convention provisions on participation. Children and young people have the right to participate to protect their own individual interests. But they also have the right to participate to protect the rights of all children and the Parkland youth have shown how incredibly effective youth actors can be on a broad political stage.
* The International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP) is comprised of research team members from Ryerson University, University of Cape Town, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Edinburgh University, Lakehead University, and McGill University. Partners are: The International Center for Research and Policy (CIESPI/PUC-Rio, Brazil), International Institute for Child Rights and Development, University of Cape Town (South Africa), Centre Intégé Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux (CIUSSS) de Centre-Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Equitas-International Centre for Human Rights Education, New Brunswick Office of the Child and Youth Advocate (Canada), Plan International Canada, Right to Play International/Right to Play China, Save the Children Canada, and the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth – Ontario (Canada).