Date: 9 November 2022
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to vote is ‘universal and equal’ for all citizens – a principle reiterated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in other human rights instruments. And yet, most of those legally defined as children – a third of the world’s population – are currently denied this basic right.
This webinar brought together two speakers, Professor John Wall and Dr Christine Huebner, to discuss children’s right to vote.
John Wall discussed his recent book, Give Children the Vote: Democratizing Democracy, which lays out the case for why all children should have the right to vote. This case is based on two central arguments: that children in general are sufficiently competent to vote, and that ageless suffrage would systemically benefit children, adults, and societies. The talk placed the children’s suffrage movement within its larger historical contexts, examined the range of objections that are usually raised against young people’s enfranchisement, and explored how children’s voting could be institutionalized in practice.