Photo/Illutration Directors of a new council advocating children’s rights to freely express their views share their thoughts at a seminar in Tokyo on May 5. (Maki Okubo)

An advocacy body hosted a seminar discussing the needed legal framework to protect children’s right to voice their opinions, which often go unheard and ignored.

“It’s important to create an environment where adults listen to what children have to say,” said Hibiki Fuse, 27, a member of the board of directors of the Zenkoku kodomo advocacy kyogikai (The national children's advocacy council). 

The seminar was held in Tokyo on May 5 (Children’s Day) to mark the founding of the council, which aims to create a society respectful of children's voices, particularly for those who live in homes for orphaned or abused children.

The advocacy council's activities include conducting training and making policy proposals. It is expected to be certified as a nonprofit organization in July.

Four of the 13 members of the entity’s board of directors are young people who lived apart from their biological parents for reasons such as child abuse.

“I couldn’t tell (staff) what I wanted to say,” Fuse said of his days at a children’s home where he lived with many children when he was an elementary school student.

“I was sad my voice wasn’t heard,” he said. 

Mutsumi Watanabe, 26, another director, said she had difficulty living with her foster family.

“I left my foster family’s home to move into a children’s home, and staff there didn’t bother to listen to me as long as I needed them to,” said Watanabe. “Until then, things had been settled without hearing my opinions.”

The council proceeds with its projects by hearing the opinions of a committee comprising those who had similar experiences to the four directors.

Members of the committee also held discussions at the May 5 seminar.

Some 320 people attended the event, which was also streamed online.

The council was set up in March with its secretariat in Fukuoka. It comprises 62 groups and individuals nationwide advocating children’s rights to make themselves heard as stipulated in Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Diet is currently deliberating a bill to revise the Child Welfare Law to mandate that child welfare centers consider the preferences of children when they are taken into temporary custody at the centers’ shelters.

Under the proposed legal revisions, prefectural governments would also be required to work on carrying out projects to help children express their views.

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