ABSTRACT
In many ways the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child is a first in the history of the United Nations. Not only because it is the world’s most widely and rapidly ratified international convention, but also because it was the first to articulate the civil and political rights to which children are entitled. These refer to the rights of children to: influence decisions made on their behalf, express their views on issues affecting them (Articles 12 and 13); freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 14); form associations (Article 15); and receive information (Article 17). Article 12, in particular, is a powerful assertion that children have the right to be actors in their own lives and not merely passive recipients of adult decision making (Lansdown 1995 in Percy-Smith 1998).
