Children’s capabilities, rights and empowerment
Children’s capabilities, rights and empowerment focuses on the importance of understanding children's capabilities, and ensuring that children’s and young people’s voices are heard and influence subsequent action. Acknowledging and respecting the rights of tamariki means that their experiences and points of view are acted on. In other words, it is a right, not an option, for children to have a say in matters that affect them. In relation to research, tamariki and rangatahi have a pivotal role in the research process to ensure that the research and outcomes are authentic, meaningful, purposeful and transformational. The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child which focuses on 54 fundamental rights of the child, and, the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which outlines the importance of empowering children, are central to the involvement of tamariki and rangatahi.