Children’s right to express their opinions on economic matters

In October of last year, a book of drawings made by children from schools in Argentina was published as part of a project that involved the Ministry of Education and Human Rights of the Province of Río Negro, the National University of Río Negro, and UNICEF Argentina. This book, titled The Essential is Visible to the Eye: Children Drawing the Economy, presents drawings and paintings on the subject of economics (both macroeconomics and household economics) that were created by fourth-grade children (9–10 years old) from schools in the province of Río Negro, Patagonia, in December 2023. The book also contains short texts written by experts with reflections on these artworks from different disciplinary perspectives, such as education, psychology, economics, psycho-pedagogy, and sociology.

The children were asked questions that helped to structure the book project: What do they identify as the “economy”? How do the children see, think, and feel their socioeconomic context? Do they perceive a crisis? What economic actors do they identify? Does the economic context affect their daily lives and, if so, in what way? Would they change anything? In this way, this book sought to reconstruct, systematize, and interpret in graphic representations how this specific aspect of their lives—the economy—affects them. The children expanded on these questions in interviews recorded after the publication of the book. This project represents not only an effort to illuminate how children understand their own economic position, but also an address to urgent human rights issues.

Children’s right to express their opinion

Human rights conventions recognize and protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression of all persons. This is crystal clear, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (art. 19). For its part, the American Convention on Human Rights recognizes that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice” (art. 13.1).

The scope of the rights of opinion and expression in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is even broader: “States 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” (art. 12). Furthermore, “the child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice” (art. 13).

That such rights embrace economic issues is made clear by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which in its General Comment No. 12 of 2009 on “The right of the child to be heard,” requires that the economy be considered among those “matters” that directly affect them (para. 87). Similarly, General Comment No. 19 (2016) on “Public expenditure and the rights of the child” (art. 4) requires “enabling environments for State officials and civil society, including children, to actively monitor, participate and interact meaningfully in budget processes through transparent, responsive and accountable public financial management systems” (para. 1).

The legal infrastructure for the protection of this specific right has not yet developed a comprehensive, precise, and sophisticated conceptualization of the content of the “opinion” that can be freely expressed, according to article 12 of the CRC, either at the national or international level. But providing an opinion, in this context, is not merely a matter of “speaking one’s mind.” The processes of constructing a relationship to the knowledge through which we see and name the world encompass both what children think and have learned, and what they experience, suffer, and enjoy. The project documented by The Essential is Visible to the Eye provided an opportunity for children in Río Negro, many of whom experience great economic precarity, to think through and express such experiences in artistic form.

Poverty seen through children’s eyes

The large sample of drawings that make up this collection can be organized into three main categories. In the first category, comprising the majority of the drawings, it becomes clear that for children, the economy in Argentina is overwhelmingly synonymous with shortages, inequalities, injustices, anguish, and violence, all of which translate into psychic suffering. Lack of access to basic goods (food, clothing, housing, water), inflation, poverty, insecurity, the financialization of areas of life related to social reproduction, and pollution are some of the recurring topics in the drawings. In the second group of drawings, empathy and the importance of community are evident (“Helping others”; “Hello, can I have some money please? Yes, of course!”). And the third and smallest group reflects the climate of the times, highlighting themes of individualism, selfishness, and lack of empathy. One such drawing shows a girl who, when asked for money by a homeless person, replies, “Who will give you a coin?! It’s because you are poor.”

The drawings that make up this collection clearly show the “situated economic conscience” of children, demonstrating that their concerns, represented in graphic form, include a marked and spontaneous interest in economic issues. Inequality and poverty produce a deep subjective suffering in children. At an early age, they already know, feel, and want many things pertaining to the economy, but there is no adequate channel through which they can express themselves and be heard or provided with more information. This is a problem from the legal perspective, as the effective realization of the children’s right to express their opinion on economic matters depends on the existence of concrete and specific means to facilitate it.

To address this, the state must ensure the means for children to access, receive, and disseminate information and opinions related to the economy, either through oral or written word, and/or artistic means, according to the interest and possibilities of each age group exercising their rights to express their opinions and feelings. Schools play here a crucial role, as they can create an environment and offer the means to facilitate and promote the realization of the children’s right to learn and to express an informed opinion on economic matters. It is clear, in any case, that international human rights bodies mandate this—and it is crucial to understand that such action cannot stop with education. Indeed, real and substantive steps must be taken to address the shameful levels of poverty and indigence in areas of Argentina that urgently and immediately need the implementation of inclusive and sustainable development policies focused specifically on the needs of children.