Policy proposals by children during the COVID-19 pandemic through the global child rights dialogues in Japan, Sweden and Tanzania

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, children were not the primary carriers of the infection. However, during the pandemic, children's everyday lives were significantly restricted, making it difficult to gather with one another, play and learn in person. OBJECTIVES: To clarify the status of their rights under 10 selected articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) during the pandemic and to propose policies that enable children to enjoy their rights through the Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) process. METHODS: Between June 2022 and January 2024, 293 children in Japan, Sweden and Tanzania participated in 46 groups. Using a 'Research with Children' approach, they discussed the status of each CRC article and suggested policy proposals to advance the rights set out in the CRC. Text mining was used to analyse frequently occurring words. Their problem statements and policy proposals were further examined and discussed. All proposals, as outlined in each article, were aggregated and analysed in a single co-occurrence network for each country. RESULTS: The proposals reflected each country's unique circumstances while also including universal demands that transcend national borders. For example, in Japan, school rules disregarded children even before COVID-19, and in Tanzania, the exclusion of children from public transportation due to lower fares had been raised as a problem. Common issues across the three countries included violations of children's rights, particularly restrictions on opportunities to play and learn together. Many of their proposals, such as eliminating gender altogether, were insightful beyond what adults would have considered. CONCLUSION: Through the GCRD, children clarified the violations of their rights under the COVID-19 pandemic and articulated policy demands to address them. Our study highlights the value of actively engaging children in research, which has implications for public policy and academia globally.