Purpose
In 2016, the Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Senior High School Education Act to overhaul the review process for the curriculum guidelines, and Curriculum Deliberation Council (CDC) members formally incorporated into the students’ representatives, which caused controversy among the people of the country. In fact, Taiwan passed the “Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child” in 2014, promulgated the Act that year and implemented it on Nov. 20 the same year. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. The unprecedented acceptance of the Convention clearly shows a wide global commitment to advancing children’s rights. With this wave of controversy rarely inspected from the perspective of "children's rights", coupled with the response to the domestication of the CRC, this study focuses on exploring important but suspended lessons on students’ participation in CDC from the rights of the child recognized in the CRC.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applied the research method of law history to trace Taiwan students’ participation in national-level curriculum decision-making after the termination of martial law. It also briefly reviewed the context and content of the CRC, followed by some reflections on Taiwan students’ participation in CDC from the rights of the child recognized in the CRC.

Findings
According to the main concept of CRC, children have the same general human rights as adults; they are not the property of their parents nor the objects of waiting for the rescue, but the subject of their own rights. These big ideas have positive implications for students' participation in public affairs. The spiritand principles articulated in the CRC can only become a reality when they are respected by everyone—within the family, in schools and other institutions that provide services for children, in communities and at all levels of administration. Based on that, the most urgent response of our people now is to recognize and clarify the concept of human rights and take further wise action.

Originality/value
This study is preliminary in the field of education and looks forward to providing a new perspective on students' participation in public affairs. It offers a vision of the child as an individual and as a member of a family and community, with rights and responsibilities appropriate to his or her age and stage of development.