World Children's Day 2022

Posted on: 18 November 2022 by Eleanor Drywood in Blog

To mark World Children’s Day, Director of the European Children’s Rights Unit (ECRU), Dr Eleanor Drywood, highlights the work of the unit to engage children and young people in research.

The United Nations (UN) designates 20 November World Children’s Day. This date marks the adoption, in 1989, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a remarkable document which, over the past 30 years, has become the most ratified global rights treaty in existence. This year, the UN has set ‘Inclusion, For Every Child’ as the 2022 theme for World Children’s Day, emphasising that ‘it’s more important than ever that the world listens to [children’s] ideas and demands’. The Eleanor Drywood at the University of Liverpool has a proud track-record of placing children’s views at the heart of its research into the impact of law on the lives of young people.

Article 12 of the Convention gives every child the right to express their views and to have those views listened to. This right applies, for example, to children’s participation in legal proceedings but has also been used to shape the way we way we conduct research into the lives of young people. This participatory approach to research is important not only because children have a right to have their views listened to, but also because it has consistently been shown to improve the quality of the resulting research.

ECRU member is part of a team which used innovative research methods to engage young people in research into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children with special educational needs and disabilities. The young people were involved in the design of a survey about their experiences of the pandemic, which could then be completed by their peers using a mix of free text, emojis and drawings. The young people later attended workshops at which they were able to set key policy priorities using techniques such as thumbs up/thumbs down and postcards to the Prime Minister identifying what they think needs to change. Using a range of methods at every stage of the research (design, data collection and evaluation) allows young people to shape research in a meaningful way.

Similarly, Eleanor Drywood is leading a large, multidisciplinary study exploring the impact of Covid-19 on children navigating the asylum system which has involved young unaccompanied asylum-seekers not just as research participants but as co-producers of the research. The young people have set research questions, designed the methods, conducted interviews and led the analysis and dissemination of the results. Professor Stalford commented that: "The young people’s input has added rich insights into how research can confront and mitigate trauma of the most vulnerable".

Central to successful research with children is carrying out research according to a robust set of ethical principles. With funding from the National Council for Research Methods, ECRU will soon publish a set of Ethics Guidance Papers helping researchers meet key challenges presented by research with children – they cover topics such as consent, safeguarding and data protection. It is hoped these papers will play a crucial role in driving forward research with children and young people, responding to the UN’s plea for World Children’s Day 2022 that we listen to children’s ideas and demands.

Discover more about the research and work of the European Children’s Rights Unit (ECRU) .