Children and Young People's Participation in Child Protection : International Research and Practical Applications

Children's participation in child protection has become a burgeoning field of interest for scholars and practitioners in the field of social work, and yet there is no edited volume that weaves together recent international contributions on the topic. This volume fills that gap, beginning with the assumption that children can and should have agency in decisions that affect their lives. Child protection is understood as protection from violence in the family and from violence in wider society. Children and youth may encounter public child protection systems in several instances: during child protection investigations, when children receive support services, during decisions about children's removals from home, and when children are in foster, kin, or residential care. Children may experience systemic violence as a lack of personal and economic security, a lack of access to education, and other factors. This book features pathways to children and young people's collective participation in changing child protection policies and services in multiple countries through examples of participatory research and practices promoting children and young people's participation in child protection. It highlights the change actions and voices of empowered and marginalized children and youth in various international contexts. The global examples featured in this volume can serve as an inspiration for children and youth, children's rights activists, child protection practitioners, students, scholars, and public policymakers to initiate, design, and implement participatory child protection policies and practices. "This volume shows how children and young people, child protection practitioners, scholars, and non-governmental organizations promote children's participation in their practice and research. It presents multiple pathways to children and young people's participation in various national contexts. Its starting point is Article 12 of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the legal platform establishing children's right to participation at the international level. Article 12 emphasizes that UN member states must ensure that children express their views and that these views count according to children's age and maturity in administrative and judicial proceedings (United Nations, 2020, n.d.). General Comment 12 about Article 12 further explains the scope of participation:"-- Provided by publisher