Conceptual Framework for Measuring Adolescent Participation

This paper adopts the approach taken by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its General Comment No.20 on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, focusing on the period of childhood from 10 years until the 18th birthday. Accordingly, it focuses on this older cohort children within the definition of Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Adolescence is not easily defined: individual children reach maturity at different ages, puberty can occur at different ages for boys and girls, and brain functions develop at different times.