Children’s Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Abstract

Recent years saw significant developments concerning the role of children in the political context. Yet, children today remain excluded from meaningful political influence, and children’s enfranchisement stands as a main point of contention. The article posits the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc) as a decisive legal and theoretical basis for conceptualising children’s political rights, political participation and voting. It explores key crc provisions that relate to children in the political context and analyses the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s (crc Committee) work to map what exists and what remains missing and under-developed in this discussion. Specifically, the article elaborates on the right to be heard, revealing the crc Committee’s evolutive interpretive approach concerning its implementation in the political context. The article also focuses on children’s enfranchisement, exploring the crc’s potential to advocate for lowering the voting age from a child rights-based perspective.