Investigation of child participation in local governments: Children assembly of Ankara and İstanbul metropolitan municipalities

The future of a society is significantly related to how childhood is spent in that society, the degree to which children's thoughts are considered, and how much value children grow up with. Child participation is the "essence"of the process of creating communities where children's rights are respected. Child councils, which came to the agenda after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force in 1995 in our country, constitute a platform where children can exercise their participation rights, but the fact that these councils are structured and established within local governments alone does not constitute an indication that ideal child participation is realized. In this framework, the aim of this thesis is to evaluate the competencies of child councils organized in Ankara and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalities by making comparative analysis with case study and comparison method. For this purpose, a semi-structured interview method, which is a qualitative analysis method, has been carried out with child council officials and councilor children. The data were tried to be reached within the framework of literature scanning and information retrieval applications, and corporate official reports of metropolitan municipalities were scanned; In addition, social media and press screening for child councils were made and web pages, legal basis, annual reports and council decisions of the councils were examined. In addition, within the framework of the 'qualification criteria' determined in terms of participation, it is aimed to analyze the competencies of the child councils regarding participation. According to Roger Hart's participation ladder, it was tried to evaluate the level of participation of municipalities in child councils. At the end of the research, it was concluded that the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality children's Assembly has achieved an important stage in child participation, while the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality children's Assembly has aspects that need to be developed in the field of participation, children's rights and democratic principles.