We work in our countries, regions, and globally to abolish a minimum voting age across the world.
Colloquia
All colloquia take place via Zoom and last 90 minutes. They take place approximately once a month.
To attend, watch out for announcements via the listserv. All are welcome.
upcoming:
past:
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wednesday september 15, 2021
2:00-3:30 pm US ET
Discussion of Input Report on HRC RES 39/11
This colloquium discussed and refined a report that being submitted by members of the Children's Voting Colloquium to the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights arguing that international law requires lowering states' voting ages to not higher than 16. The report is being submitted by Sonja Grover and John Wall.
august 19, 2021
3:00-4:30 pm US ET
Make It 16: Documentary Screening
A screening of the brand new 20-minute documentary "Make It 16" about the fight to lower the voting age in New Zealand, followed by a chat with the young Make It 16 activists involved.
Make It 16 members outside the High Court
(Photo: Hannah Grun / Make It 16)
july 15, 2021
2:00-3:30 pm US ET
Visioning Session
This is the one year anniversary of the Children's Voting Colloquium! In this session, we'll celebrate the many strides we've already made. Then we'll think collectively and in break-out rooms about the best ways to move forward in the year to come.
How can the Children's Voting Colloquium best serve your needs and goals in the coming year?
Pre-arranged break-out rooms:
GROUP 1: ENGAGING WITH CHILDREN
GROUP 2: ENGAGING WITH ACTIVISTS
GROUP 3: NEW COLLOQUIA
GROUP 4: PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
june 17, 2021
2:00-3:30 pm US ET
Documentary Screening: "Power to the
Children," directed by Anna Kersting
We had a fascinating chat with one of the ex-youth leaders featured in the film, Gnanasekar Dhanapal, then watched about 30 minutes of this 87 minute documentary about Indian children's parliaments, followed by discussion.
This film documents two neighborhood children's parliaments in India and how the children and youth involved tackle local issues like pollution, domestic abuse, and sanitation in ways that improve their communities.
Donate to the children's parliament NGO here.
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March 20, 2021
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may 21, 2021 - instead of meeting:
8:00-10:00 am US ET
Children and the Future of Democracy
A colloquium of the Childism Institute, Rutgers University, in association with Linköping University.
This colloquium seeks to explore some of the pressing challenges to democracy today and stimulate a discussion around how we can build a more child-responsive democracy for the future. How does childism help address challenges like populism, authoritarianism, migration, the climate, and the pandemic?
Speakers: Jonathan Josefsson, Irene Rizzini, John Wall, Bengt Sandin, Sana Nakata, Kei Nishiyama, Toby Rollo, and Anna Holtzscheiter, moderated by Kristi Lindenmeyer
March 20, 2021
april 15, 2021
2:00-3:30 pm US ET
Children's Voting as a Question of Economics
A panel of experts will discuss the ways in which children's suffrage is related to economics, poverty, work, development, and similar topics.
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Luigi Campiglio, Professor of Economic Policy, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
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Lavinia Mello Rella, Researcher, Behavioral Economics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
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Kristiina Vares-Wartiovaara, Sustainability Entrepreneur and Co-Founder, Children's Voice Association, Finland
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Stein Ringen, Professor of Political Economy, Oxford University and King's College London, UK
Discussion and dialogue to follow.
March 20, 2021
March 20, 2021
2:00-3:30 pm US ET
A Conversation with Jakob Hinze, recent Ph.D. in Philosophy at University of St Andrews, Scotland, and affiliate with the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, about his recently completed dissertation, Rejuvenating Democracy: Age, Knowledge, and the Right to Vote.
Responses by John Wall, Robin Chen, and others followed by discussion.
November 12, 2020
Four of us presented what we are working on at the moment, including US efforts to lower the voting age, reaching out to countries' children's rights commissioners, developing an academic edited volume, and reaching out to paediatric societies worldwide. We also developed our overall plan for working groups and assigned leaders to each. See working group page here.
October 1, 2020
This meeting was devoted to developing an overall strategic campaign for the project, led by partners at Amnesty International UK. We developed the following overall objective statement: "We will work in our countries, regions, and globally to abolish a minimum voting age across the world." And we agreed to work on a hybrid model in which we continue to meet as a larger group in a monthly colloquium, but also develop smaller working groups to target specific issues and geographical regions.
August 20, 2020
A discussion of practical strategies and next steps. Numerous strategies were proposed, including the following: involving children and youth; integrating persons of color; hosting a speakers series; developing white papers, courses, videos, scholarship, and fiction; gaining funding for polls, research, legal work, and case development; creating a website and twitter account; reaching out to more children's voting organizations; and working toward an eventual summit or convention with public declaration.
July 23, 2020
The inaugural meeting of the Children's Voting Colloquium. The 13 in attendance (with 4 sending regrets) presented their ideas about children's voting. All agreed that, in one way or another, the voting age of 18 should be eliminated, so that children and youth are equally accounted for in democracies. But there were various positions on whether that involves universal/ageless voting, lowering the voting age, proxy voting, or some combination thereof.