Every year on the 12th August the International Community celebrates UN International Youth Day. This is a chance to recognise the efforts of the world’s youth in enhancing global society and to promote ways to increase young people’s engagement and positive involvement in their communities. So I can’t help but wonder, what the recent riots across the UK say about children and young people’s participation in British society?
Under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and young people have the right to express their views; widely understood as the right to participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives. Many child rights practitioners and organisations believe that children and young people can greatly enhance projects and programmes designed to improve their lives by voicing their grievances and highlighting important issues that adults often neglect to consider.
However, the recent riots in London and across the UK and indeed much of the political reaction to these riots raise serious questions about the level that children and young people meaningfully participate in and feel part of British society. While a wide range of people were involved in the riots, a significant number it seems, were from poor and excluded backgrounds, some with low access to education and many stigmatised by the police for their age, ethnicity, gender or simply the way they dress. These riots may have been for some, the result of years of marginalisation, exclusion and frustration with society in general.
I do not condone looting, violence or the destruction of innocent people’s property and homes as a legitimate form of voicing one’s grievances. Certainly images of young people looting flat screen TVs and trainers have raised a lot of questions about the real motivations behind these riots. However, while this may not have been conscious political protest with a clearly articulated cause, it still shows that a significant group of people in this country feel disconnected enough from the rest of society to destroy their own communities. Whether that disconnect is due to poverty, exclusion, lack of opportunity, frustration with the police or simple boredom, surely this in itself is a political cause with which we should all be concerned.
Unfortunately the initial reaction of both politicians and some elements of the media were to focus overwhelming on a discourse of crime and punishment without seriously engaging in questions of why young people have behaved in this way. When the Minister of Education is interviewed repeatedly on the issue and would rather talk about police and control than education, opportunities or participation, one can’t help but be reminded of how far removed some members of our government are from the real lives of many of the people they represent. How can we solve this problem in a long-term and sustainable way without addressing the underlying causes and engaging young people themselves in these debates?
I do welcome the efforts of some of the media in talking to a range of young people about this issue in recent days. But at the same time we must also be aware that the spaces we provide for young people to voice their opinions need to allow for their meaningful participation; they must be able to express themselves in a language with which they are comfortable and in the knowledge that their opinions will be taken seriously and respected.
Child rights advocates around the world have developed a many different mechanisms to enable children and young people to voice their opinions and have more of a say in the decisions that affect them. From youth councils, to street theatre to displaying symbols around the community which demonstrate issues of grievance and call leaders to account, these mechanisms vary across cultures and contexts. Whatever mechanisms are in place for children and young people’s participation, they must feel they have real ownership of those mechanisms, that adults respect their opinions and views and that those views will be seriously taken into account when decisions affecting their lives are made. Some of the best channels for children and young people to be heard have been developed by children themselves using their own methods of communication. What we must do as a society is provide the space for them to develop those channels.
Much of Britain is still shocked by the riots of the past week, and it will take a long time to recover from the damage that has been caused. But we must not lose sight of the importance of understanding these events so that we can prevent them from happening again. We cannot begin to try to understand them if we do not provide the space for young and marginalised people to discuss the issues that affect them. We must make real efforts as a community and as a society, to ensure that children and young people of all backgrounds and social situations feel part of this society and feel they have a real say in how their lives can be improved. It may have been a “small minority” that carried out these riots but even minorities are part of society and I for one am of the opinion that even minorities should have a voice.
