Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I How to Understand Childhoods in the Postcolonial Context
- Part II Children Under Colonial and Postcolonial Rule
- Part III Children’s Rights and the Decolonization of Childhoods
- Epilogue: Childhoods and Children’s Rights Beyond Postcolonial Paternalism
- References
- Index
9 - Children’s Movements as Citizenship from Below
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I How to Understand Childhoods in the Postcolonial Context
- Part II Children Under Colonial and Postcolonial Rule
- Part III Children’s Rights and the Decolonization of Childhoods
- Epilogue: Childhoods and Children’s Rights Beyond Postcolonial Paternalism
- References
- Index
Summary
Adults miss the point. When is a child considered skilful enough to contribute and participate actively? If you do not give them the opportunity to participate, they will not acquire the skills. Give us the chance early and see how we fly. (Khairul Azri, 17, Malaysian delegate to the UN ‘Special Session on Children’ in 2002; UNICEF, 2002: 1)
Citizens before the revolution were apathetic and careless. We didn't care about what is happening because we felt the country was not ours. But now the revolution has succeeded, everyone feels this country is theirs and that's why we will try to rebuild it and make it a better place. (Jihad, 14, Cairo, Egypt, April 2011; cited in BBC News, 2011)
Introduction
In today's political discourse on the role of children in society, it would be a breach of etiquette not to emphasize children's citizenship. Most of the time, the discussants limit themselves to insist on children being citizens, though without specifying or supporting their assertion. Where children's citizenship is further described, it is usually defined as a becoming status, which children can acquire in a step-by-step process (‘citizens in the making’). The acquisition of citizenship is depicted as a learning process through which children have to go by themselves or be guided by an educator. In this context, children are invited to fight for their interests by participating in activities and programmes organized for them. To engage in such a program is seen as a practical test to prove that children are on the verge of turning into citizens or just became citizens.
This understanding of children's citizenship seems to me to be inadequate and wrong. In my opinion, children's citizenship is not merely a preparation for a future status, nor is it exhausted in a point by point or symbolic participation. It is also not covered by the so-called participation rights, which have been approved in the UNCRC for the first time under binding international law. The right of children to be heard and to take their views according to their age and maturity into account, as laid down in Article 12 of the UNCRC, reserves the final decision making for adults and the bodies they dominate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Decolonizing ChildhoodsFrom Exclusion to Dignity, pp. 191 - 216Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2020