Youth rights

"Youth for human rights" redirects here. For YHRI, seeYouth for Human Rights International.

Youth For Change panel members push down metaphorical barriers

Theyouth rightsmovement (also known asyouth liberation) seeks to grant therightstoyoung peoplethat are traditionally reserved foradults.This is closely akin to the notion ofevolving capacitieswithin thechildren's rightsmovement, but the youth rights movement differs from the children's rights movement in that the latter places emphasis on the welfare and protection of children through the actions and decisions of adults, while the youth rights movement seeks to grant youth the liberty to make their own decisions autonomously in the ways adults are permitted to, or to abolish the legal minimum ages at which such rights are acquired, such as theage of majorityand thevoting age.

Codified youth rights constitute one aspect of how youth are treated in society. How youth are treated and thought of by adults are others.

Issues

Of primary importance to advocates of youth rights are historical perceptions of young people, which they say areoppressiveand informed bypaternalism,adultismandageismin general, as well as fears ofchildrenandyouth.Several of these perceptions made by society include the assumption that young people are incapable of making crucial decisions and need protecting from their tendency to act impulsively or irrationally. Youth rights advocates believe those perceptions informlawsthroughout society, includingvoting age,child labor laws,the right to work,curfews,drinking age,smoking age,gambling age,age of consent,driving age,voting age,emancipation,medical autonomy,closed adoption,corporal punishment,theage of majority,andmilitary conscription.Restrictions on young people that aren't applied to adults are called status offenses and are viewed by youth rights advocates as a form of unjustifieddiscrimination.

There are specific sets of issues addressing the rights of youth in schools, includingzero tolerance,"gulag schools",In loco parentis,andstudent rightsin general.Homeschooling,unschooling,andalternative schoolsare popular youth rights issues. A long-standing effort within the youth rights movements has focused oncivic engagement.Other issues include mandatoryallowanceandnon-authoritarian parenting.There have been a number of historical campaigns to increaseyouth voting rightsby lowering thevoting ageand theage of candidacy.There are also efforts to get young people elected to prominent positions in local communities, including as members ofcity councilsand as mayors. For example, in the2011 Raleigh mayoral election17-year-old Seth Keel launched a campaign for Mayor despite the age requirement of 21. Strategies for gaining youth rights that are frequently utilized by their advocates include developingyouth programsandorganizationsthat promoteyouth activism,youth participation,youth empowerment,youth voice,youth/adult partnerships,intergenerational equityandcivil disobediencebetween young people and adults.

History

Further information:History of youth rights in the United States

First emerging as a distinct movement in the 1930s, youth rights have long been concerned withcivil rightsandintergenerational equity.Tracing its roots toyouth activistsduring theGreat Depression,youth rights has influenced thecivil rights movement,opposition to the Vietnam War,and many other movements. Since the advent of theInternet,the youth rights movement has been gaining predominance again.

Fallibility and individual differences

Some youth rights advocates use the argument offallibilityagainst the belief that others can know what is best or worst for an individual, and criticize the children's rights movement for assuming that exterior legislators, parents, authorities and so on can know what is for a minor's own good. These thinkers argue that the ability to correct what others think about one's ownwelfarein afalsificationist(as opposed topostmodernist) manner constitutes a non-arbitrary mental threshold at which an individual can speak for his or herself independently of exterior assumptions, as opposed to arbitrary chronological minimum ages in legislation. They also criticize the carte blanche for arbitrary definitions of "maturity" implicit in children's rights laws such as "with rising age and maturity" for being part of the problem, and suggest the absolute threshold of conceptual after-correcture to remedy it.

These views are often supported by people with experience of the belief in absolutely gradual mental development being abused as an argument for "necessity" of arbitrary distinctions such asage of majoritywhich they perceive as oppressive (either currently oppressing or having formerly oppressed them, depending on age and jurisdiction), and instead cite types ofconnectionismthat allows forcritical phenomenathat encompasses the entirebrain.These thinkers tend to stress that different individuals reach the critical threshold at somewhat different ages with no more than one in 365 (one in 366 in the case of leap years) chance of coinciding with a birthday, and that the relevant difference that it is acceptable to base different treatment on is only between individuals and not between jurisdictions. Generally, the importance of judging each individual by observable relevant behaviors and not by birth date is stressed by advocates of these views.

Youth rights

NYRA Berkeley voting age protest

Minimum age convention 14 years: purple 15 years: green 16 years: blue

Children's rightscover all rights belonging to children. When individuals grow up, they are granted new rights (such as voting, consent, and driving) and duties (such as criminal responsibility and draft eligibility). There are differentminimumlimits of age at whichyouthare, situationally, not independent or deemed legally competent to make certain decisions or take certain actions. Some rights and responsibilities that legally come with age are:

• Voting age
• Age of candidacy
• Age of consent
• Age of majority
• Age of criminal responsibility
• Drinking age
• Driving age
• Legal working age
• Right to work
• Student rights
• Youth suffrage

After youth reach these limits they are free tovote,buy or consumealcohol beverages,and drivecars,among other acts.

Movement

The "youth rights movement", also described as "youth liberation", is a nascentgrass-roots movementwhose aim is to fight againstageismand for thecivil rightsof young people – those "under the age of majority", which is 18 in most countries. Some groups combatpedophobiaandephebiphobiathroughout society by promotingyouth voice,youth empowermentand ultimately,intergenerational equitythroughyouth/adult partnerships. Many advocates of youth rights distinguish their movement from thechildren's rightsmovement, which they argue advocates changes that are often restrictive towards children and youth.

Organizations in China

International Youth Rights(IYR) is a student-run youth rights organization in China, with regional chapters across the country and abroad. Its aim is to make voices of youth be heard across the world and give opportunities for youths to carry out their own creative solutions to world issues in real life.

Organizations in Europe

TheEuropean Youth Forum(YFJ, from Youth Forum Jeunesse) is the platform of the National Youth Council and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations in Europe. It strives for youth rights in International Institutions such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. The European Youth Forum works in the fields of youth policy and youth work development. It focuses its work on European youth policy matters, whilst through engagement on the global level it is enhancing the capacities of its members and promoting global interdependence. In its daily work the European Youth Forum represents the views and opinions of youth organisations in all relevant policy areas and promotes the cross-sectoral nature of youth policy towards a variety of institutional actors. The principles of equality and sustainable development are mainstreamed in the work of the European Youth Forum. Other International youth rights organizations includeArticle 12 in Scotlandand K.R.A.T.Z.A. in Germany.

InMalta,the voting age has been lowered to 16 in 2018 to vote in national and European Parliament elections.

TheEuropean Youth Portalis the starting place for the European Union's youth policy, withErasmus+as one of its key initiatives.

Organizations in the United States

TheNational Youth Rights Associationis the primary youth rights organization for theyouths in the United States,with local chapters across the country. The organization known as Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions is also an important organization.The Freechild Projecthas gained a reputation for interjecting youth rights issues into organizations historically focused onyouth developmentandyouth servicethrough their consulting and training activities. TheGlobal Youth Action Networkengages young people around the world in advocating for youth rights, andPeacefireprovidestechnology-specific support for youth rights activists. Choose Responsibilityand their successor organization, theAmethyst Initiative,founded byJohn McCardell, Jr.,exist to promote the discussion of the drinking age, specifically. Choose Responsibility focuses on promoting a legal drinking age of 18, but includes provisions such as education and licensing. The Amethyst Initiative, a collaboration of college presidents and other educators, focuses on discussion and examination of the drinking age, with specific attention paid to the culture of alcohol as it exists on college campuses and the negative impact of the drinking age on alcohol education and responsible drinking.

Organizations in India

Young India Foundation(YIF) is a youth-led youth rights organization in India, based in Gurgaon with regional chapters across India. Its aim is to make voices of youth be heard across India and seek representation for the 60% of India's demographic that is below the age of 25.YIF is also the organization behind the age of candidacy campaign to bring down the age when a Member of Legislative Assembly or Member of Parliament can contest.

Prominent individuals

Youth rights, as a philosophy and as a movement, has been informed and is led by a variety of individuals and institutions across the United States and around the world. In the 1960s and 70sJohn Holt,Richard Farson,Paul GoodmanandNeil Postmanwere regarded authors who spoke out about youth rights throughout society, including education, government, social services and popular citizenship.Shulamith Firestonealso wrote about youth rights issues in the second-wave feminist classicThe Dialectic of Sex.Alex Koroknay-Paliczhas become a vocal youth rights proponent, making regular appearances on television and in newspapers.Mike A. Malesis a prominentsociologistand researcher who has published several books regarding the rights of young people across the United States.Robert Epsteinis another prominent author who has called for greater rights and responsibilities for youth. Several organizational leaders, includingSarah Fitz-ClaridgeofTaking Children Seriously,Bennett HaseltonofPeacefireandAdam Fletcher (activist)ofThe Freechild Projectconduct local, national, and internationaloutreachfor youth and adults regarding youth rights.Giuseppe Porcaroduring his mandate as Secretary General of theEuropean Youth Forumedited the second edition of the volume "The International Law of Youth Rights" published byBrill Publishers.

See also

• Amethyst Initiative
• Choose Responsibility
• Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth
• Defense of infancy
• Education reform
• History of youth work
• Codename: Kids Next Door
• List of articles related to youth rights
• List of youth organizations
• Mature minor doctrine
• National Youth Rights Association
• Sudbury school
• Youth
• Youth participation
• Youth politics
• Youth voting rights