For Adults Only? Young People and (Non)Participation in Sexual Decision Making

The term ‘participation’ is often used to refer to children and young people’s involvement in decision-making processes but it also denotes the individual decisions that they make about their everyday lives. With regards to sexuality, children and young people are routinely excluded from policy formation and decision-making processes, due to assumptions about their sexual immaturity and lack of competence. The right of children to participate in the decisions that affect their lives is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the articles of the UNCRC are commonly grouped into three categories referred to as the ‘3 P’s’: protection rights, provision rights and participation rights. This article will argue that, because of the refusal to recognise the sexually agentic child, children’s protection rights outweigh their participation rights. Recognising the right to participate in sexual decision making requires children’s protection rights to be balanced with their rights to participation