| Summary: | Autonomy and participation in decisions by adolescents placed in care (France, Germany, Russia) This paper looks at the socio-educational practices in relation to adolescents placed in residential care in France, Germany and Russia. It especially analyses the conception of autonomy that underpins these practices that are defined, most of the time, in reference to an autonomisation objective. It also looks at the consequences on the participation of the youngsters in decisions that relate to them which principle is recognised and guaranteed by the international Convention on the Rights of the Child and national legislations in the three countries involved. Through this comparison, the concept of user’s participation, linked to the decision-making process as well as to tasks of daily life, appears as an instrument that can be used to help adolescents to learn to be autonomous. The practices studied are replaced in the institutional and legislative contexts that govern them. This comparison between the different levels in each minor protection system shows the similarities between the ways the users participate in the legal or administrative procedures that lead to their being placed in care and the method of participation for the minors placed in care within the receiving establishment. To occur in reality, the principle of user participation in decisions that concern them can not be limited just to receiving establishments but must also be extended to decision-making at all levels.
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