The guides consist of content covered during educational programs and mainly provide background information on children's rights, international conventions, and the current national legal framework, as well as the principles and basic steps of child participation.
Children's participation rights in Turkey and the world, including their right to information, association, freedom of expression, and thought, are guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Turkey is a signatory. However, despite this, children cannot use their rights due to structural barriers created by adults in the adult world responsible for protecting their rights. For the healthy development of democracies, it is vital that every individual and group that makes up the society participate in decision-making mechanisms. The inability of children to participate in decision-making mechanisms creates a democratic deficit in administrations and stands as an obstacle to democracies.
With this in mind, EU TACSO 3 has prepared these guides in a way that will be accessible to all CSOs, following a training program that will enable to strengthen the capacity of CSOs working with children, especially in the field of children's rights and/or child participation, by breaking new ground in Turkey. We think that it is particularly useful to underline that the guide prepared especially for children was created by child participants in the training program.
