The thesis makes the case for why, and how, child participation should be facilitated in transitional justice, arguing for a framework grounded in the rubric of the ‘right to be heard’ as outlined in article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘Convention’). In doing so, it employs an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the areas of children’s rights and development studies to address the gap in transitional justice and human rights law scholarship on child participation in transitional justice.

Through a systematic literature review, the thesis examines to what extent, and in what ways, transitional justice mechanisms of the past have specifically included the participation of children – and what this tells us about assumptions made by transitional justice designers, practitioners and scholars about the value of child participation in those processes. The thesis then explores the extent to which article 12 of the Convention contributes toward an understanding of child participation in transitional justice, outlining a conceptual and analytical framework rooted in international child rights law.

Using a qualitative approach, the thesis utilises data collected from adolescent children in Rwanda in focus groups at secondary schools to demonstrate how these children know and understand transitional justice (particularly the interaction between national and local processes) and article 12 of the Convention, as well as what processes, activities, and spaces they associate with these concepts. In doing so, the thesis argues that children should ‘be heard’ in decision-making processes in transitional justice in line with article 12 of the Convention.

The thesis constitutes a crucial original contribution to scholarship on transitional justice from the perspective of children’s rights and of development studies and will serve as a key resource in terms of future efforts to bring children’s rights and views to bear on transitional justice policy and practice.