Building on Rainbows : Supporting Children’s Participation in Shaping Responses to COVID-19

As the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently stated1, underlining various longstanding national and European laws and recommendations, children’s views should be taken into account in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children’s participation in decision making is not a luxury, it is a protective measure2 and children have shown many times that they make valuable contributions in responding to disasters and risk reduction3 . By enabling children to help shape responses to COVID-19 we can ensure that rules and services take proper account of their rights and needs. This will help increase safety and efficiency, promote health and wellbeing and generate constructive long-term solutions to the personal, health, education, social care, community and economic challenges that lie ahead in the period of recovery. This rapid evidence report contains findings from a survey conducted (in one week, April 2020) with 95 professionals contacted through children’s participation and rights networks in 20 countries, including their reports of children’s perspectives.

This evidence, from across Europe, illustrates:

• Difficult conditions experienced by children in all countries, related to health, communication barriers, information shortages and digital reliance. Plus, additional challenges in many countries, related to accessing education, basic essentials, care and safety, mental health and wellbeing, involvement in decision making; and arising from exposure to violence, changes in family life, falling family and personal income and employment, inaccessible services and ongoing discrimination.

• Additional exposure to these challenges faced by children and young people who are care experienced, young Roma, children with experience of vulnerable family situations, migration, poverty and disability and those vulnerable to CSE, trafficking and violence.

• Response measures at national, local and organisational levels, introduced to try to address these challenges and mitigate risks, showing the value of and need for children’s participation, identifying experiences, concerns and solutions, including with children in vulnerable situations.

Participation is a right (UN CRC Art 12) supported by EU Treaties and Council of Europe Recommendations, which states that children’s views should be sought, heard and taken into account in decisions, in relation to all matters that concern children. It involves the rolling process of planning, connecting with people, identifying issues, investigating views, taking action, following up action and reviewing; and then starting again4 . Children have been very active in participating and contributing to the functioning of households, sharing and creating information that promotes safety, caring for family members, providing help and support to friends and neighbours and taking part in paid and unpaid work.

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