Page 13 - Meeting with Children Book

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is also in providing children with a voice in decision
making processes that affect them.

Specifically, Article 12 promotes the child’s best
interest by providing that children have input in
decision- making processes that affect them.

Article 12
Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of
forming his or her own views the right to express those
views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views
of the child being given due weight in accordance with
the age and maturity of the child.

Article 12 describes a child’s right to be consulted.
Our observation is that this provision has taken the
public and private family law processes by storm. The
family law system has begun to entertain the
possibility that the child’s voice is unique and separate
to the voices of parents, extended family, or
professional advocates. The business of the Family
Law has traditionally been regarded as ‘parent work,’
with children the passive recipients of the outcome.
In applying the intention of Article 12, Family Courts
have created opportunity for the expression of child
views through the creation of role for Child
Lawyers/Representatives, through Family
Consultants, Voice of the Child Reports, and Family
Reports. These professionals seek to directly or
indirectly represent the child’s view to the judicial
officer. But this is not the same as the concept of
providing a process in which the child actively brings
their own voice into family law processes.