Minister O’Gorman addresses the Child and Youth Participation for Europe conference

On Monday 23 May, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, gave a keynote address to open the Child and Youth Participation for Europe conference at University College Cork. Organised by the Council of Europe/EU Joint ChildParticipation4Europe project alongside Hub na nÓg and with the input of young people themselves, the conference was the first event held as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe, which began on 20 May and will run until mid-November. A key theme of Ireland’s Presidency is ‘Hear Our Voices’ – Promoting participatory democracy and youth engagement in the 21st century’.

Over the past 3 days, delegates heard from a variety of experts and leaders in the field of child and youth participation in decision-making at University College Cork and the Metropole Hotel. Discussions took place on themes including ‘The importance of child participation for our democracies/societies’, ‘Bringing children and young people into adult spaces and youth led participation’ and ‘Including Babies, Toddlers and Children under the age of 5 in Decision-Making’, amongst others.

Young people from Irish organisations such as Comhairle na nÓg, the National Youth Assembly of Ireland, the Irish Secondary Students Union and the Young Voices EU Youth Dialogue programme were joined by their peers from across the CP4Europe project’s five partner countries – the Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Portugal and Slovenia.

Speaking on Monday, Minister O’Gorman said:

• children and young people’s participation in decision-making is a process to facilitate their active involvement and influence in decisions that affect their lives
• under both Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 24 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, children and young people have the right to have their views heard on matters which concern them
• Ireland was the first country in Europe to have a dedicated participation strategy for children and young people: the National Strategy for Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015-2020
• ‘participation of all children’ was identified as one of five priority areas in the Council of Europe’s Strategy for the Rights of the Child, 2016-2021
• this commitment was reiterated this year in the new Strategy for the Rights of the Child, 2022-2027, which placed ‘Giving a voice to every child’ amongst six key strategic objectives

CP4Europe Project

• in April 2021, the European Commission and Council of Europe launched a joint project entitled “CP4Europe – Strengthening National Child Participation Frameworks and Action in Europe” [CP4Europe]
• the project aims to foster opportunities across Europe for child participation in decision-making processes
• the project is implemented by the Council of Europe Children’s Rights Division in co-operation with its 5 partner countries – the Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Portugal and Slovenia

Hub na nÓg

• Objective 5 of The National Strategy for Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision Making provides for the DCEDIY to maintain its leadership role to champion and promote children and young people’s participation
• the priority action to realise this Objective was the establishment of a Children and Young People’s Participation Hub, as a national centre for excellence. Named Hub na nÓg: Young Voices in Decision Making, the centre of excellence was established and launched in November 2017
• Hub na nÓg as a resource is now available to support all government departments, State agencies and other relevant bodies in implementing the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making