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Child Participation as the Holy Grail: Effective and Meaningful Participation in Judicial Proceedings?

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Myth or Lived Reality

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. 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. 2.

    See for example: Lundy 2007; Thomas 2007; Tisdall et al. 2008; Donnelly and Kilkelly 2011; Parkes 2013; Rap 2016; Henaghan 2017; Couzens 2017; Daly 2018; Mol 2019; Liefaard 2019.

  3. 3.

    Liefaard and Sloth-Nielsen 2017.

  4. 4.

    Collins 2017; Lundy 2018.

  5. 5.

    United Nations General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, resolution 44/25 (20 November 1989).

  6. 6.

    Tobin 2019.

  7. 7.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, paras 41–46.

  8. 8.

    This study is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, grant no. 451-17-007 4135, 2018–2021.

  9. 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. 10.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 20.

  11. 11.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 21.

  12. 12.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 34.

  13. 13.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, paras 25 and 80.

  14. 14.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 134(a).

  15. 15.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 82.

  16. 16.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 43.

  17. 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. 18.

    Compare: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, paras 70–74, and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013, paras 50–54.

  19. 19.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013, para IV, B, 3; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 74.

  20. 20.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2013, para V, 2, B.

  21. 21.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2003, para 12.

  22. 22.

    See, for example, Tisdall 2017.

  23. 23.

    De Graaf et al. 2012.

  24. 24.

    Limbeek and Bruning 2014.

  25. 25.

    See Liefaard et al. 2019.

  26. 26.

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009, para 132.

  27. 27.

    Hart 1992, p. 9.

  28. 28.

    Lundy 2007, pp. 932–933.

  29. 29.

    Lundy 2018, p. 343.

  30. 30.

    Lundy 2018.

  31. 31.

    Tisdall 2015, p. 188.

  32. 32.

    Cornwall 2008, in Tisdall 2015, p. 188.

  33. 33.

    See Tisdall 2016.

  34. 34.

    Tisdall 2015, p. 192.

  35. 35.

    Tisdall 2015, p. 196.

  36. 36.

    Tisdall 2015, p. 196.

  37. 37.

    CBS 2019a, b.

  38. 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. 39.

    Smyth 2014; Kennan and Kilkelly 2015; Mannion 2016; Stalford 2018.

  40. 40.

    Van Os 2018.

  41. 41.

    Chase 2013; Werkgroep Kind in azc 2014, 2016; Werkgroep Kind in azc/COA/Avance 2018; Uzozie and Verkade 2016; Darmanaki Farahani and Bradley 2018.

  42. 42.

    Kohli 2006; Kalverboer and Winter 2006; Kalverboer et al. 2009; Chase 2010.

  43. 43.

    See, for example, Kloosterboer 2009.

  44. 44.

    Council of Europe 2018; see also Kloosterboer 2009; Chase 2010.

  45. 45.

    European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) 2015.

  46. 46.

    See Rosani 2020.

  47. 47.

    Crock 2015.

  48. 48.

    Pobjoy 2016.

  49. 49.

    Lidén and Rusten 2007; Duivenvoorde 2018.

  50. 50.

    UNHCR/UNICEF 2014.

  51. 51.

    Kinderombudsman 2019.

  52. 52.

    Reneman 2014.

  53. 53.

    Lansdown 2005; Cederborg 2015; Crock 2015; Ottosson and Lundberg 2013; ENOC Taskforce children on the move 2016.

  54. 54.

    Werkgroep Kind in azc/COA/Avance 2018.

  55. 55.

    Pobjoy 2016.

  56. 56.

    Ottosson and Lundberg 2013, p. 284.

  57. 57.

    Lundberg and Lind 2017.

  58. 58.

    Lidén and Rusten 2007; see also Pobjoy 2016.

  59. 59.

    Thorburn Stern 2015.

  60. 60.

    Kalverboer and Zijlstra 2006.

  61. 61.

    Reneman 2014.

  62. 62.

    Kalverboer and Zijlstra 2006.

  63. 63.

    ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:3171. See also Rodrigues 2019.

  64. 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. 65.

    CBS 2018.

  66. 66.

    Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 250.

  67. 67.

    Bruning et al. 2016a, b; Rap et al. 2019.

  68. 68.

    Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 250.

  69. 69.

    Bruning et al. 2016b, p. 6.

  70. 70.

    Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 256.

  71. 71.

    Bruning et al. 2016b, pp. 44, 45; Rap et al. 2019, p. 43.

  72. 72.

    Rap et al. 2019, pp. 43, 46.

  73. 73.

    Rap et al. 2019, p. 43.

  74. 74.

    Bruning et al. 2016b, pp. 17, 18.

  75. 75.

    Bruning et al. 2016a, p. 255.

  76. 76.

    Rap et al. 2019, p. 46.

  77. 77.

    Bucx et al. 2018, p. 233, p. 236 and p. 240.

  78. 78.

    Rap et al. 2019, p. 46.

  79. 79.

    Bruning et al. 2016b, p. 15, pp. 19-20.

  80. 80.

    Friele et al. 2018.

  81. 81.

    Friele et al. 2018, pp. 85 and 553–554.

  82. 82.

    Nationale Ombudsman 2017, p. 4.

  83. 83.

    Friele et al. 2018, p. 81; Nationale Ombudsman 2017, p. 4.

  84. 84.

    AKJ 2018, p. 5.

  85. 85.

    Kinderombudsman 2018, p. 12.

  86. 86.

    In the Netherlands, three local children’s ombudsmen are active, in The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

  87. 87.

    Kinderombudsman Rotterdam 2018.

  88. 88.

    Council of Europe 2010; European Commission 2011; Council of Europe 2016; European Commission 2017.

  89. 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. 90.

    Stalford 2018. See also Van Willigen 2003; Doornbos 2006; Shamseldin 2012; Hedlund 2017; Rap 2020.

  91. 91.

    Smyth 2014, p. 131.

  92. 92.

    UNHCR 2009, para 73.

  93. 93.

    Friele et al. 2018, p. 554.

  94. 94.

    Bessant and Broadley 2014; Van Bijleveld et al. 2015; Daly 2017.

  95. 95.

    Masson 2000; Daly 2017; Leviner 2018.

  96. 96.

    Tisdall and Morrison 2012; Collins 2017; Daly 2017.

  97. 97.

    Daly and Rap 2018, p. 16; McMellon and Tisdall 2020, p. 169.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Law, Leiden Law School, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Stephanie E. Rap & Katrien F. M. Klep

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  1. Stephanie E. Rap
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  2. Katrien F. M. Klep
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Correspondence to Stephanie E. Rap .

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  1. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Claire Boost

  2. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Andrea Broderick

  3. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Fons Coomans

  4. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Roland Moerland

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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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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-447-1_7

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