Who We Are​

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The Children's Voting Colloquium is a global collaboration of researchers, activists, child-led and adult-led organizers, policy-makers, and others dedicated to eliminating voting discrimination according to young people's age.

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While we hold a diversity of positions on how our aims may be achieved in practice, and while we recognize that different solutions may be appropriate in different contexts, we seek to support and stimulate one another and to catalyze a broader movement for truly universal suffrage, whether through full voting rights for all, lowered voting ages, proxy votes, or some combination thereof.

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We were founded in 2019. We meet monthly in online colloquiums and share information via our active listserv. We collaborate with numerous organizations worldwide such as Children's Rights Network (CRIN), Amnesty International UK, National Youth Rights Association (NYRA), Children's Voice Association, Freechild Institute, Make It 16 NZ, and others. We develop cutting-edge scholarship around children's voting philosophy, politics, law, history, and sociology. And we ally with other voting reform movements around gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, and other forms of marginalization in addition to age.

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All interested individuals and groups are welcome to join us!

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John Wall and Robin Chen (co-founders)
 

what we do
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• Organize regular international colloquia to discuss ageless voting with experts and activists
   

• Publish research on interdisciplinary dimensions of ageless voting rights
   

• Develop campaigns to advance the local, national, and international movement for children's suffrage
   

• Support other children's voting rights organizations, policy groups, and legislative and judicial efforts
   

Our Principles

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• Children deserve equal representation in democratic life
   

• Children's suffrage respects children's dignity as political persons
   

• Children are just as competent to vote as they are to exercise free speech
   

• Children's suffrage is the single best way to improve children's well-being
   

• Children's suffrage is vital to strong societies and democracies
   

the argument for children's suffrage

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• Children, just like adults, have diverse voting competencies. It is discriminatory to bar all children from voting simply because of their age, when in reality they bring to politics many different ideas, experiences, and types of knowledge.
   

• Children are just as impacted by political decisions as are adults. They need to be able to hold politicians directly accountable to their own particular lives and interests.
   

• Children will help societies make more informed, long-term, and inclusive policy choices. Children's suffrage will improve the well-being of children, adults, societies, and democracies.