National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making 2015-2020
Year of production: 2015
Image is illustrative. Shutterstock.
The goal of this first National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-making is to ensure that children and young people will have a voice in their individual and collective everyday lives across the five national outcome areas. The strategy is primarily aimed at children and young people under the age of 18, but also embraces the voice of young people in the transition to adulthood up to the age of 24. The strategy is guided and influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The strategy focuses on the everyday lives of children and young people and the places and spaces in which they are entitled to have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. Accordingly, the strategy identifies the following objectives and priority areas for action:
1. Children and young people will have a voice in decisions made in their local communities;
2. Children and young people will have a voice in decision-making in early education, schools and the wider formal and non-formal education systems;
3. Children and young people will have a voice in decisions that affect their health and well-being, including on the health and social services delivered to them;
4. Children and young people will have a voice in the Courts and legal system.