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Evaluation of legislation, policy and practice on child participation in the European Union

A team of researchers around PARTISPACE member Barry Percy-Smith has evaluated the state of child participation in the European Union.
Child participation report coverEuropean Commission’s DG Justice has now published their final report. The report covers the evaluation of legal regulations, policies and practices of participation of children in all member states. The evaluation focused on the following objectives:

  • To map legislation, policy and practice in the 28 Member States of the EU with
    regard to implementation of the right of the child to participate;
  • To address attitudes towards, and cultural acceptance of, child participation in
    the various settings;
  • To identify any barriers to full implementation of the right of the child to
    participate, and identify enablers of child participation;
  • To identify and showcase good practice on child participation in the EU Member
    States, including at local, regional and national levels, as well as within the EU
    institutions;
  • To evaluate the work completed by the European Commission and other EU
    institutions on child participation; and,
  • To draw up recommendations and practical guidelines for child participation at
    local, regional, national and European level.

The evaluation methodology among other methods included a highly innovative approach of child-led research involving more than 700 children in participatory action research projects.

The final report is available as a free download from the EU bookshop. Additionally, there is a summary of the report for download on the same site.