Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to reflect on how to ensure the effective participation of children in judicial procedures as a fundamental right of the child. The child’s right to participation has received much scholarly attention. Child participation has been hailed as a legal recognition of the fact that children are bearers of rights, and therefore have the right to take part in important decisions that shape their lives. However, the principle of child participation has also been scrutinised for being ineffective and void of real meaning. This chapter analyses the participation of children in two legal systems in the Netherlands: the immigration system and the youth care system. It describes the opportunities for children to participate in the decision-making that takes place in these two systems. The interests of children may be the same as their parents’ interests, or differ from them. The state may take a decision that runs counter to what children and parents perceive to be in their interest. At the heart of these tensions lies the issue of child participation, and the related concepts of the ‘best interests’ of the child and ‘self-determination’. In this contribution it is argued that effective participation not only requires reflection upon practical or technical conditions—such as the manner in which children are informed about the procedure, and whether or not they receive legal (or other appropriate assistance) from well-trained professionals and child-friendly environments—but that it also requires profound reflection upon the nature and purpose of laws, policies and practices: do these allow for the effective and meaningful participation of children?
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Notes
- 1.
In accordance with Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children are persons below the age of 18. In this contribution, the terms children and young people are both used to refer to persons below the age of 18.
- 2.
- 3.
Liefaard and Sloth-Nielsen 2017.
- 4.
- 5.
United Nations General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, resolution 44/25 (20 November 1989).
- 6.
Tobin 2019.
- 7.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, paras 41–46.
- 8.
This study is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, grant no. 451-17-007 4135, 2018–2021.
- 9.
Klep conducts the research project: Children’s rights at the municipal level: Access to (social) justice in voluntary youth care in the Netherlands. This study is funded by the Leiden University Fund/Kroese-Duijsters Fonds.
- 10.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 20.
- 11.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 21.
- 12.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 34.
- 13.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, paras 25 and 80.
- 14.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 134(a).
- 15.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 82.
- 16.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 43.
- 17.
The four general principles are: the non-discrimination principle (Article 2 CRC), the best interests of the child principle (Article 3(1) CRC), the right to life and development (Article 6 CRC) and the right to be heard (Article 12 CRC).
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013, para V, 2, B.
- 21.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2003, para 12.
- 22.
See, for example, Tisdall 2017.
- 23.
De Graaf et al. 2012.
- 24.
Limbeek and Bruning 2014.
- 25.
See Liefaard et al. 2019.
- 26.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 132.
- 27.
Hart 1992, p. 9.
- 28.
Lundy 2007, pp. 932–933.
- 29.
Lundy 2018, p. 343.
- 30.
Lundy 2018.
- 31.
Tisdall 2015, p. 188.
- 32.
Cornwall 2008, in Tisdall 2015, p. 188.
- 33.
See Tisdall 2016.
- 34.
Tisdall 2015, p. 192.
- 35.
Tisdall 2015, p. 196.
- 36.
Tisdall 2015, p. 196.
- 37.
- 38.
See Article 25(1) European Union, Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 26 June 2013 on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection (recast), Official Journal of the European Union, L180/60.
- 39.
- 40.
Van Os 2018.
- 41.
- 42.
- 43.
See, for example, Kloosterboer 2009.
- 44.
- 45.
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) 2015.
- 46.
See Rosani 2020.
- 47.
Crock 2015.
- 48.
Pobjoy 2016.
- 49.
- 50.
UNHCR/UNICEF 2014.
- 51.
Kinderombudsman 2019.
- 52.
Reneman 2014.
- 53.
- 54.
Werkgroep Kind in azc/COA/Avance 2018.
- 55.
Pobjoy 2016.
- 56.
Ottosson and Lundberg 2013, p. 284.
- 57.
Lundberg and Lind 2017.
- 58.
- 59.
Thorburn Stern 2015.
- 60.
Kalverboer and Zijlstra 2006.
- 61.
Reneman 2014.
- 62.
Kalverboer and Zijlstra 2006.
- 63.
ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:3171. See also Rodrigues 2019.
- 64.
Staatsblad 2014, 105, Wet van 1 maart 2014 inzake regels over de gemeentelijke verantwoordelijkheid voor preventie, ondersteuning, hulp en zorg aan jeugdigen en ouders bij opgroei- en opvoedingsproblemen, psychische problemen en stoornissen (Jeugdwet) [Act of 1 March 2014 on regulations concerning the municipal responsibility concerning prevention, support, help and care for children and their parents in case of problems in growing up and upbringing, psychological problems and disorders (Youth Act)].
- 65.
CBS 2018.
- 66.
Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 250.
- 67.
- 68.
Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 250.
- 69.
Bruning et al. 2016b, p. 6.
- 70.
Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 256.
- 71.
- 72.
Rap et al. 2019, pp. 43, 46.
- 73.
Rap et al. 2019, p. 43.
- 74.
Bruning et al. 2016b, pp. 17, 18.
- 75.
Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 255.
- 76.
Rap et al. 2019, p. 46.
- 77.
Bucx et al. 2018, p. 233, p. 236 and p. 240.
- 78.
Rap et al. 2019, p. 46.
- 79.
Bruning et al. 2016b, p. 15, pp. 19-20.
- 80.
Friele et al. 2018.
- 81.
Friele et al. 2018, pp. 85 and 553–554.
- 82.
Nationale Ombudsman 2017, p. 4.
- 83.
- 84.
AKJ 2018, p. 5.
- 85.
Kinderombudsman 2018, p. 12.
- 86.
In the Netherlands, three local children’s ombudsmen are active, in The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
- 87.
Kinderombudsman Rotterdam 2018.
- 88.
- 89.
United Nations General Assembly, Convention related to the Status of Refugees. Text of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Text of the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Resolution 2198 (XXI).
- 90.
- 91.
Smyth 2014, p. 131.
- 92.
UNHCR 2009, para 73.
- 93.
Friele et al. 2018, p. 554.
- 94.
- 95.
- 96.
- 97.
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Rap, S.E., Klep, K.F.M. (2021). Child Participation as the Holy Grail: Effective and Meaningful Participation in Judicial Proceedings?. In: Boost, C., Broderick, A., Coomans, F., Moerland, R. (eds) Myth or Lived Reality. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-447-1_7
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