the State itself recognises children as subjects of the rights to participation as enshrined in the UNCRC. Legal and Policy Mechanisms There are very few legal instruments that acknowledge and provide for children’s right to participation. Not even the Gender and Family Department, which appears to be the foremost State body dealing with children’s affairs, has any policy or mechanism that requires children’s participation. When such provisions do exist, there is often a wide gap between policy/legislation and praxis. There are several interlinked reasons for the existence of such a gap: lack of political will; lack of knowledge; and lack of resources. The lack of knowledge, or a proper understanding of the UNCRC’s vision of children as subjects of the rights to participation which it enshrines means that policymakers are satisfied with formulating mechanisms for protecting children while ignoring children’s rights to fully engage in the decision-making processes related to matters that affect their daily lives. This lack of knowledge, compounded by partisan political wrangling, means that legislation aimed at improving children’s participation is regarded as low-priority and is often left languishing in parliamentary archives, waiting for MPs’ attention. This has been the case with the Education Bill and the Juvenile Justice Bill, both of which have now been in the Parliament for years. Both, especially the Juvenile Justice Bill, have the potential to markedly increase the State’s ability to fulfil its obligations to assure children’s rights to participation. These issues mean that during times of political upheaval and during times of austerity—both of which are being experienced in the Maldives at present—matters relating to children’s rights as a whole become relatively unimportant. The result is that when budget-cuts are being made, such issues are often the first to get the chop, or to be ignored when the budget is drawn up. Several problems that arise in realising children’s rights, including children’s participation, are a direct result of a lack of funding: there is often insufficient financial resources to pay for enough teachers, trainers, care-workers and caseworkers; or there is insufficient funding to pay for their training. As the focus group discussions revealed, the lack of sufficiently trained professionals is one of the biggest impediments to the provision of proper care to children both in educational and alternative care institutions. The discussions also revealed that teachers feel they are overworked and cannot often spare the time to attend to children’s special needs—a feeling confirmed by children who pointed to teachers being ‘stressed out’ as one of the main reasons why they feel they are not listened to in schools. Efforts have to be made to raise awareness among policymakers, legislators and politicians of the equal importance that the UNCRC accords to children’s participation as it does to the protection of children. Without this fundamental understanding, future legislation will not give these rights of children their due attention, and without such legislation, it would be difficult to have mechanisms for children’s participation written into law and adopted as a matter of policy. Focus Areas: Family While children are generally satisfied with the opportunities they have for participation within their families and immediate personal relationships, efforts to create more awareness among parents 69