Some of the challenges and lessons learned from the key informant interviews about children’s participation include the need to address: (1) the age/gender of the child; (2) the cognitive ability and emotional development of the child; (3) children’s safety; (4) limits of confidentiality and consent; (5) the training and education of different professionals in interviewing children; (6) culture, l [...] Article 12 of the Convention states that: 1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. [...] Sinclair (2004) describes children’s participation as involving four dimensions: (1) the level of active engagement in participation (e.g., degree of power sharing between adults and children); (2) the focus of the decision-making that involves children (e.g., decision-making within the family versus in the context of public services); (3) the nature of the participation activity (e.g., consultati [...] Observations are made with respect to parent-child interaction, and personal and professional reports on the family are collected with a view to providing a written report to the court on the best interests of the children and the parents’ abilities to meet the needs of their children (Birnbaum, Fidler and Kavassalis, 2008). [...] The participants included, parents, family law advocates and support workers, and representatives from the Family Youth Justice Committees about their knowledge, experiences, and ideas as to how the FRA could be reformed and better reflect the needs of families involved in the family law system (Reeves, 2008).26 Many of the topics that were canvassed with the participants reflect the services alre
Authors
- Pages
- 96
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
