Evolving capacities
Article 5 of the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges that parental rights,
duties and responsibilities to provide appropriate direction and guidance to
their child diminish in light of the child’s evolving capacities of autonomous
thought and action, of discernment and decision-making. Parents or, where
applicable, the guardian are to direct and guide the child in exercising the
rights afforded by the Convention. States are obliged to respect this role of
parents and guardians and to provide support in accordance with the provisions
of the Convention.
See also:
Centre: The child, The
guardian
Level 5: Consult the child
Level 6: Care planning,
life project; Education and training; Work; Health care
References:
EU training and learning platform for guardians of
unaccompanied children Chapter 2, Session 2.1. Creating an effective relation between guardian and the child
Literature:
Lansdown, G. (2001), Promoting
children’s participation in democratic decision-making, Innocenti Insight
, UNICEF
Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.
Lansdown,
G. (2005), The evolving capacities of the child, Innocenti Insight
, UNICEF Innocenti Research
Centre, Save the Children, Florence.
Varadan,
S. (2019), ‘The principle of evolving capacities under the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child’, The International Journal of Children’s Rights, Vol.
27, pp. 306-338.
