ABSTRACT
The ability of young people to participate in the events and issues that make up their lives is one of the most significant themes of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Given the speed of the UNCRC’s adoption by states (within seven years every country except Somalia and the US has ratified it)1 it might be considered the most globalized and transnational law on Earth. Yet, because of its substantive subject matter, dealing with the lives of children and families, the abstract rules of law are given life by the local contexts in which they are negotiated. In this chapter we explore the ‘glocalization’ of the meaning of one aspect of participation in the UNCRC, in particular Article 12 that is one of the most significant provisions in the Convention. It states in pertinent part:
1 States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child …
2 For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child.
