October 11, 2023.
On October 5 2023, CIESPI hosted a round table on “Strategies to increase children and youth participation in public debate and decision-making arenas”. The focus was on participation in municipal Councils for the Rights of the Child and the Adolescent or CMDCAs. Special participants were young members of the Youth Forum of South Fluminense in Action from the city of Volta Redonda, one of whom was a young counselor in that city’s council and another an ex-counselor. Also participating were professors from PUC-Rio and the Federal University of Fluminense, and a member of the Center for the Defense of Rights of Children and Adolescents of Rio de Janeiro.
The wide-ranging discussion included the impacts of participation and protagonism of young people in public spaces; the struggles of such participation; how adults and young people can contribute to the advance of this process; and how to balance the power of adults and young people in intergenerational encounters.
During the event, CIESPI launched the virtual publication of brief descriptions of regulations on the topic in our bibliographic data base under Child and Youth Participation (Academic Articles in Latin America 2005-2022) which contains a list of 300 articles easily accessible.
This publication may be accessed here.
The seminar was an initiative that connects 3 projects under the coordination of professor Irene Rizzini, Professor in the Department of Social Work at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and director of CIESPI at PUC-Rio: (1) The International and Canadian Partnership for the Rights of the Child (ICCRP - International coordination by professor Tara Collins, Toronto Metropolitan University (supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada); (2) Citizen participation: focus on children and youth (supported by FAPERJ - Rio Research Council); (3) Monitoring the processes of child participation in policies and programs for the protection of children in an international context (supported by CAPES – National Research Council); and the International and Canadian Partnership for the Rights of the Child (supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).