A Handbook on Child Participation in Parliament

"Enhanced child participation improves parliament by making it more inclusive, more representative and more democratic. Indeed, if parliaments are to serve and reflect the will of all the people, then including children will help engender a system that better serves the entire population; it will in consequence strengthen parliaments' ability to deliver on their governments' commitments to defend the rights of children."

This handbook addresses some of the ways parliamentarians can guarantee that children's voices, concerns, and interests find expression in and are taken into account by parliaments. The rationale is that, "[a]s members of the principal representative institution in any democracy, parliamentarians are uniquely positioned to engage and interact directly with their constituents, including children. Indeed, the very health of a democracy depends on a robust relationship between parliamentarians and their constituents, with the former transmitting the voices of the latter, including children, and thereby bridging the gap that separates citizens from government."

A collaborative effort of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), it aims to provide parliamentarians with information on a variety of mechanisms designed to ensure that children's participation in parliaments is meaningful, reflects the voices of the most marginalised, and contributes to policies, laws, and budgets that intend to correct the "disparities and inequities that afflict the world's children".

Following introductory material, the resource includes:

• Chapter 1: What is child participation? - The focus in this chapter is on why participation is important, why child participation is a right, and what examples illustrate children's participation and their evolving capacities.
• Chapter 2: Why parliaments should involve children - Topics explored here include: "Child participation improves parliaments' representative function", "Child participation improves legislative outcomes", "Child participation offers a long-term perspective" and "Child participation promotes civic engagement and civic education".
• Chapter 3: Principles for child participation - Here, the reader can learn about requirements for effective and ethical child participation, as well as child participation in the parliamentary context.
• Chapter 4: Bringing children into parliament - Details are provided about working within the parliamentary committee system, participating in oversight through input in plenary discussions, participating in the budget process, parliamentary caucuses, and children's ombudspersons.
• Chapter 5: Bringing parliament to children - Topics included are: national and subnational consultations, engaging with children at the constituency level, and using information and communication technology (ICT) to reach children
• Chapter 6: Making the parliamentary environment conducive to child participation - One area outlined here revolves around building partnerships to facilitate child participation. It is noted that: "As some of the examples given in this handbook demonstrate, parliaments can partner with a host of actors - international NGOs [non-governmental organisations], local NGOs, children's organizations and youth clubs, UNICEF [the United Nations Children's Fund] and other stakeholders - that can help facilitate participation and collect and analyse data, and accordingly enhance all of parliament's functions. NGOs can facilitate and develop capacity for children's participation at the national level in legislative consultations, in research processes mandated by the government, through children's clubs, or in an advisory group for a government ministry or parliamentary committee." Other topics included in this chapter focus on bolstering the child-sensitive research capacity of parliament, civic education, and children's parliaments.
• Chapter 7: Key resources
• Annexes - These include: "Global commitments", "IPU [Inter-Parliamentary Union] Resolution", and "Summary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child".