The Participation Rights of Adolescents:
A Strategic Approach

by Rakesh R. Rajani, November 2000, UNICEF

The goal of adolescent participation programs is to ensure that young people aged 10-19 years have the capabilities, opportunities and supportive environments necessary to participate effectively and meaningfully in as enlarged a space as possible (along the four axes below), to the maximum extent of their evolving capacities. Participation along these axes should not be arbitrarily denied to adolescents, but it should also always be voluntary and not coerced.

Adolescents can participate in multiple geographical settings, from the personal to the global, and in a range of institutional settings, from the household and school to the municipal council and international conference (see figure and note on next page). For some, the internet and other ‘virtual communities’ provide an increasingly important space for communication. Additionally, within these settings, young people can participate through different roles. The following table, which is not meant to be exhaustive, lists some of the key settings and roles in which adolescents can participate meaningfully.

Geographical Settings	Institutional Settings	Roles
personal/individual domestic neighborhood village/town district national regional global   "virtual (computer) communities"	family schools workplaces street physical environment recreation spaces internet, chat rooms health/social services cultural organizations religious institution youth associations/networks/teams youth serving agencies other CSOs/NGOs media international agencies juvenile justice agencies political parties/parliament conferences special circumstances (e.g. refugee camps, military, orphanages)	speaking learning/teaching listening/hearing discussing/deliberating resisting care-taking income generating counseling/facilitating recreating/playing culture-making producing/reproducing researching/investigating monitoring/evaluating reasoning/analyzing planning/policy-making rule-making decision-making administering/managing representing/advocating voting