Will Adults Ever Listen to Working Children ? : Open Democracy / Baquer Namazi

Are adults willing to listen to children on child labour?
By
Ornella Barros
opendemocracy.net
3 min
View Original


Listen to us, understand us, and implement laws that respect our rights

CACs are advocating for their views, feelings, and suggestions to be heard, valued, and taken seriously by policy makers, practitioners, caregivers, employers, teachers, and police. When working children’s views are ignored their rights to participation are violated, and they face increased risks of exploitation and abuse. Likewise, when children can speak up individually and collectively they are more able to defend their rights.

Working children want to participate and represent themselves in decision-making processes at the family, school, local and national levels. They also want a seat at the table in regional and global policy forums that concern them. Many CACs organised interactions with local government officials and other influential stakeholders to present and discuss their priority concerns and grievances, and to advocate for improvements to service provision, policies, and budget allocations that would better respond to their needs and rights. Working children also want their associations and networks to be recognised and engaged with as partners to navigate the best way forwards.
Working children are ready to talk. Are you?

“It’s Time to Talk!” is now being followed by the project “Dialogue Works”. This will run from 2020 to 2024. Its goal is to expand the spaces for dialogue among working children and duty bearers, from local to global levels, and to promote sustainable platforms for children’s participation in societal and political processes.

The complexities of children’s work and labour reveal the importance of approaching children as actors in the wider context of their families and societies. Only this will ensure a holistic, inter-sectoral response that will fulfil children’s indivisible rights. Recognising children’s agency and listening to their insights not only challenges existing pre-conceived notions of childhood, but forces powerful members of adult institutions to recognise the macro-economic trends that perpetuate local and global inequalities. Listening and responding to children’s suggestions would enhance efforts to address underlying structural issues (inequality, poverty, violence) that prevent children and their families from accessing quality education and other basic services, food security, and dignified work.

Despite 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, there has been least progress in realising children’s civil rights to freedom of expression, to access information, to form associations and assemble peacefully, and to be heard in decisions that affect them. Governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations must strengthen their strategies, plans, and budget allocations to ensure fulfilment of children’s civil rights. This necessitates:


capacity building and sensitisation of adults (policy makers, local officials, teachers, caregivers, etc.) to recognise children’s capacities and to listen deeply to children in order to develop, refine, and monitor practice and policy developments informed by children’s views and best interests;
an expansion of platforms and spaces for working children’s participation and representation in existing structures, including school governance, local governance, and policy forums on child labour, decent work, quality education, child protection and social protection.

Cultural, political, economic, and institutional barriers to children’s participation and representation must be dismantled so that working children’s views and demands have influence and weight in policy making processes.