Switzerland fails on children’s rights

Swiss children want to have more say www.unicef.ch

Switzerland has not done enough to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to a survey released on Monday by Unicef.

Children want more of a say at school and within the local community.

While 48 per cent of children questioned felt they had a say in family matters, only 39 per cent thought their views mattered at school and just seven per cent at the community level.

Reinhard Fatke, an education specialist at the University of Zurich said that even though adults in Switzerland have far more say in the democratic process than people in many other countries, the same cannot be said of children.

“Switzerland is far behind other [European] countries because it ratified the UN convention much later,” he told swissinfo.

“In addition the political structure in Switzerland – characterised by the division of responsibility among the 26 cantons – goes a long way to explaining why Switzerland is so far behind other countries where the central government has more power {to introduce reforms].”

Wide-ranging survey

Unicef questioned almost 13,000 children aged between nine and 16 during the first three months of last year.

The survey is the largest of its type ever conducted among children in Switzerland and clearly illustrates that they want more of a say in issues that directly affect them, according to Unicef Switzerland’s director, Elsbeth Müller.

“Children want to be heard,” she told swissinfo. “They want adults to listen to them and they want to be involved in the decision-making process.”

“Early participation means you get involved in the process of democracy sooner and once you have learned to participate you become really interested in what is going on in your country.”

Müller stressed that schools in particular could do more to incorporate the opinions of children in setting the classroom curriculum or deciding how work would be assessed.

“”Children need to be more involved [in a consultative role],” she said.

“A greater involvement means children have a bigger impact on the system and they will be less frustrated by a lack of power, and there will be fewer problems at school and less violence generally.”

Children’s parliaments

Switzerland has a tradition of children’s parliaments throughout the country, which Fatke admits go some way to giving children a voice.

But he is critical of the extent to which adults, and in particular politicians, “allow” those parliaments to function.

“One has to differentiate between youth parliaments that are merely decorations for politicians – and that is mainly the case – and the few parliaments that actually have the right to make decisions that count,” he said.

“That means decisions with real consequences where the participants have responsibility for a certain budget.”

swissinfo, Jonathan Summerton

Key facts

The survey questioned 12,800 children aged between nine and 16.
While 48 per cent of children questioned felt they had some say in family matters only seven per cent of children felt they had a say in issues affecting the local community.
Switzerland ratified the United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights in 1997