The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that all people have the right to have a say in how they are governed, and that government will be legitimate through representing that will. It also says, very explicitly, that that will should be expressed through free and fair elections, with universal and equal suffrage. 

The Amnesty Children's Human Rights Network (CHRN) Committee would like to pose this question, given this article of the UDHR: Where in the election process of the UK - or any other country in the world - are children? Where is their equal suffrage? Where is their will in our government? 

All over the world, young people are demanding changes to the voting system and demanding their right to have a say in their government- the government who's laws they live under, who set school curriculums, who make climate policy, and countless other things which effect under 18s as much, if not more, then their older counterparts. 

The CHRN committee believe any voting age to be arbitrary, and a denial of the rights afforded to all people in the UDHR. However, many feel a lower voting age would be more appropriate. 

Read the case for Universal Suffrage.

Visit Votes at 16 in the UK

Find out about Votes at 16 New Zealand - who have a court challenge in motion.

Read about the young person demanding their vote in Germany through the Convention on the Rights of the Child.