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.
European 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.