APPROACHES ON PROMOTING CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PARTICIPATION/ENFOQUES PARA PROMOVER LA PARTICIPACION INFANTIL Y ADOLESCENTE/ABORDAGENS PARA PROMOVER A PARTICIPACAO DA CRIANCA E DO ADOLESCENTE

Participation in itself promotes individual autonomy and collective empowerment, and strengthens democracy in our societies. Recognised as a universal human right (1948), the right to participate is protected for child citizenship by international legislation introduced in the middle and last third of the twentieth century, which identifies children as subjects of rights. Studies on child and adolescent participation are based on the child rightsbased approach, which recognises that children and adolescents are subjects of rights and social actors. This article set out to carry out a theoretical systematisation exercise on participation in general, focusing on child participation in particular, in light of other approaches considered complementary to the rights-based approach, but which have scarcely been used: the capabilities approach, the feminist approach and the intercultural approach based on a socio-critical reading The results of the theoretical-conceptual analysis made it possible to link the concept of participation to those of agency and autonomy, as well as to highlight the inertia and cultural and institutional barriers that limit citizen participation processes, with special emphasis on the citizenship of women, children and adolescents. It is concluded that the participation of children refers to participation in an individual, collective and national capacity, presented and limited by binary or patriarchal and adult-centric stereotypes. These three approaches invite us, in short, to rethink child and adolescent participation and participatory practices in childhood based on the values of autonomy, responsibility, equality and diversity. KEYWORDS: child advocacy; childrens rights; agency; intercultural education; feminism La participacion constituye un fin en si mismo que redunda en la autonomia individual y empoderamiento colectivo, a la vez que es tambien un medio que fortalece la calidad democratica de nuestras sociedades. Reconocida como derecho universal humano (1948), el derecho a participar queda protegido para la ciudadania infantil en la legislacion internacional de mediados y ultimo tercio del siglo XX que asume la infancia como sujeto de derechos. Los estudios acerca de la participacion de este colectivo se apoyan en dicho reconocimiento juridico para aproximarse a la realidad desde un enfoque de derechos donde ninos, ninas y adolescentes constituyen actores sociales. Este articulo se propuso realizar un ejercicio de analisis teor