Daly, Aoife --- "Free and Fair Elections for Some? The Potential for Voting Rights for Under-18s" [2012] ELECD 798; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section: Chapter 14

Section Title: Free and Fair Elections for Some? The Potential for Voting Rights for Under-18s

Author(s): Daly, Aoife

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

14. Free and fair elections for some?
The potential for voting rights for
under-18s
Aoife Daly

Well, I called my congressman
And he said, quote,
`I'd like to help you, son
But you're too young to vote'
Eddie Cochran, Summertime Blues, 1958


In a democracy, the right to vote is the ultimate characteristic of citi-
zenship. Even where its practical value is arguable, it is a symbolic con-
firmation of one's status as citizen. Yet a number of exclusions from
enfranchisement have existed in various places and times. These have
included women, slaves, those without property, and particular ethnic
groups. Similarly, age limits persist; setting the age of 18 as the voting age
is common practice1 and it is confirmed to an extent within international
human rights law. The right to vote is not included explicitly in the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child for example, although Article 12
goes some way towards addressing the traditional invisibility of under-18s
in the political sphere. Article 12 enshrines the `right to be heard' of chil-
dren, stipulating that states `shall assure' that right to a child once he or
she is capable of forming his or her own views. Children must be able to
express those views freely in all matters affecting them, and crucially those
views must be given due weight `in accordance with the age and maturity
of the child'.
It is no longer sufficient, therefore, to assume that under-18s are inca-
...