“I Will Not Stand Aside and Watch. I Will Not be Silent”

Abstract

Children are not typically considered as being “political”, but they do possess the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly under international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nonetheless, a lack of commentary and jurisprudence on this right of children and young people has left it largely unexplored. This article presents the findings from a digital ethnography during the #FridaysForFuture and #ClimateStrikeOnline strikes in 2020 during which young people claimed their right to freedom of assembly both in person and online. Focusing on the right to freedom of assembly, we apply Bennett and Segerberg’s (2012) concept of “connective action” to conceptualise these rights for children and young people under the uncrc, and present a four-part model that captures young people’s exercise of their rights as “connect”, “express”, “collect” and “enact”.