ABSTRACT
Chapters 4 to 7 have considered aspects of young people’s lives, and raised a number of problems that young people face. One way in which governments and NGOs have sought to relieve such problems is through recourse to a discourse of rights, expressed most comprehensively in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC encompasses rights to protection, provision and, most controversially, participation. Although children are social actors and may take on considerable responsibility, they are often silenced and rendered invisible by the attitudes and practices of adult society (Roche 1999). Many claim to feel powerless and excluded. Participation is seen as a way of enhancing children’s control over their own lives. However, mobilising around children’s rights is unlikely to benefit the majority of children unless it is accompanied by wider political changes that ameliorate the situations in which they live.
