The Ombudsman’s activities during 2000 and early 2001 concerned a large number and variety of issues. The Office carried out a study of Swedish Migration Board practice in asylum cases involving families with children and a study of county administrative court decisions relating to the enforcement of judgements, orders or agreements on the subject of custody, residence or access under Chap. 21 of the Code of Parenthood and Guardianship (FB). A study and questionnaire survey were undertaken on the subject of schoolchildren and stress. The questionnaire showed among other things that children find school stressful, and a seminar is therefore being arranged for the autumn of 2001, aimed at identifying possible countermeasures. Work on the national strategy for giving effect in Sweden to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was intensified. During the spring and autumn of 2001 the Office made preparations for mapping the situation for children with functional impairment.

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman was interviewed or mentioned in more than 1,300 articles published by Swedish newspapers and periodicals during the year, and featured in 111 items and telegrams on Swedish Radio and Swedish Television, as well as TV3 and TV4. The Ombudsman was mentioned or interviewed in about ten telegrams and news items included in TT (Swedish Central News Agency) radio transmissions. The number of media spots has not diminished during 2001. In most of the articles and news items the Ombudsman was interviewed in person, but other members of the secretariat staff were also interviewed on various topics.

Internet publications became more numerous as a result of more and more newspapers, news agencies and broadcasting stations publishing their material electronically. Added to this, the all-electronic media and portals grew in number and the Office is estimated to have been quoted here to an extent matching the number of press clippings, i.e. on 1,300 occasions. The number of foreign press publications is not continuously monitored, but the level of international interest remained high.

The Office addresses public opinion through the medium of press releases, website announcements, chronicles, debate articles and personal contacts with journalists writing or preparing features for or about children and young persons. For 2000 and 2001 the Office has undertaken a drive to make its activities better known to children and young persons. Press activities were aimed more specifically than before at newspapers, radio, television and electronic media for children and young persons.

Young children and access disputes, stress experienced by children in school, shortcomings of child and youth psychiatry, circumcision of boys, the right of asylum-seekers’ children to pre-school education, UNCRC work in relation to national, regional and local authorities, collective punishment in schools, the Work Environment Act and schools, and victimisation are questions which the Office has pursued and will be pursuing in the media during the year.

The Office has been in touch with children and young persons in Sweden on the Internet since 1997. The pupils attend schools ranging from Kalix in the far north to Ystad in the south, as well as the Swedish School in Moscow. Almost a thousand middle-school pupils (ages 10-12) are acting as Mini-Delegates, and the Youth Panel comprises nearly 800 pupils in the senior grades of compulsory school (ages 13-16).

Each term these pupils complete a questionnaire on various subjects through the Children’s Channel and Youth Channel. During the past year they were asked questions about conditions for girls and boys and about stress at school. Their replies are collated and analysed at the secretariat and presented in the Ombudsman’s annual report to the Government. The pupils’ opinions convey an important picture of how children and young persons view their lives, and our aim is to involve more and more contact classes, thereby improving the quality of our input data. A new questionnaire survey in the autumn of 2001 will also be addressed to children with functional impairment.

The Ombudsman’s website, which has become an increasingly important channel of information to and from the outside world, has been reconstructed and is updated continuously with news of the Ombudsman’s activities. Press releases, announcements, comments on official Government reports, other written communications, debate articles and chronicles have been added to the website. Last year’s annual report was the first to be published in full on the web. Certain press releases and writings were translated into English, in response to demand from foreign journalists.

The web pages Children’s Channel and Youth Channel were initially intended for the Ombudsman’s contact classes but are now being developed to inform other children and young persons of their rights.

The Children’s Channel and Youth Channel had 18,000 visitors during the year.

The five commonest search words generating visits to the Ombudsman’s website in December 2000 were:

1. The UNCRC.
2. The Children’s Ombudsman.
3. Bullying.
4. Children.
5. Divorce.

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman reports annually to the Government. In this report we highlight the issues which we want the Government to consider. Last year’s report, Childhood in Progress, 2000, conveyed a picture of children’s well-being and of their conditions and activities, added to which, the Office took a stand on three urgent issues. The first of these concerned participation by children and young persons in their immediate surroundings. This was followed by findings from a study of 62 court decisions in access disputes concerning children up to the age of three years. This year’s (2001) annual report, Both are Best, includes a progress report on giving effect in Sweden to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as presentation of children’s views concerning gender stereotypes and stress in schools.

On 26th March 1999 the Riksdag (parliament) adopted a special strategy for giving effect in Sweden to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The aim of the strategy is for the Convention and its intentions to be present in all decisions relating to children. The Office has had a key role in the task of implementing the national strategy and is responsible for the measures of information and education addressed to local, regional and national authorities. A special funding allocation was received for this strategic activity.

The work done during 2000 and 2001 can be briefly summed up as follows:

Louise Sylwander, who had been Children’s Ombudsman since 1st July 1993, retired on 31st December 2000. During the seven-and-a-half years of its existence, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman has addressed a wide variety of issues. Victimisation has been a topic of major importance, together with the right of children and young persons to be consulted on matters affecting them, e.g. custodial questions and urban planning. Much work has been devoted to children at risk, e.g. as regards sexual abuse, physical violence and discussions of children’s right to their origin.

Perhaps the biggest challenge has concerned transposing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to Swedish law and making it an integral part of the day-to-day work of national, regional and local authorities. Much remains to be accomplished, but internationally Sweden is well to the fore in the task of implementing the Convention at all levels in the community. All through the 90s, children and young persons felt the effects of the cutbacks introduced in pre-school education, schools and out-of-school centres. Many adults were put out of work, and households with children experienced a socio-economic deterioration. Activities for children and young persons received less funding, which often meant a loss of quality. The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman worked to mobilise opinion in favour of safeguarding the right of children and young persons to a good, stimulating and safe environment. We stressed the need for school health care and the importance of schools complying with the Work Environment Act.

Sweden’s second Children’s Ombudsman, Lena Nyberg, took over on 19th February 2001. This change of Ombudsman will lead to various changes, both organisational and operational. Children with functional impairment are one of the themes for autumn 2001, and another theme of activities will be children with different ethnic backgrounds and their situation in Sweden. By and large, however, activities will continue on the lines already established.

One important operational change now planned is a growth of contacts with children and young persons. This will be achieved through the contact classes already existing throughout the country. The number of such classes will be increased, and there will be more regular feedback to and from the classes and their teachers. The Office has set up a Child and Youth Council of its own. In addition, children and young persons are visited regularly in the course of journeys through Sweden, often in conjunction with the Office’s attendance of various conferences and meetings. Co-operation has been established with the Stockholm Institute of Education with a view to reaching the very youngest children in pre-school education. The Office hopes that trainee teachers on pre-school teaching practice will be able to convey a picture of the situation and opinions of the very youngest children.

During the autumn of 2000 and spring of 2001, the Office joined with the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) in arranging a course entitled International Training Programme on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This took place in Sweden and, like previous training programmes, dealt with the Convention and concrete ways of giving effect to it. In addition, an account was given of the role of the Children’s Ombudsman. The emphasis was on such topics as child and youth participation, the importance of acts and statistics, and ways in which the participants can continue working with the UNCRC in their home countries.

The participants were parliamentarians, politicians, civil servants and various persons working at high level with children’s rights in their home countries. The course was also addressed to academics and representatives of NGOs working with children and young persons. On both occasions the 25 participants were jointly selected by the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman and Sida. Those taking part in the first course came from various countries of Southeast Asia, viz the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The second course, in spring 2001, was attended by representatives from Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

International co-operation between Children’s Ombudsmen is steadily gathering strength. During the spring of 2001 the Children’s Ombudsmen of the Nordic countries met in Copenhagen to discuss the possibility of joint activities and the need for an interchange of experience, partly by enabling staff at the different secretariats to visit and learn from each other. Co-operation with the other European Children’s Ombudsmen has also been intensified. Several countries turn to the Swedish Children’s Ombudsman for advice or support on the strength of our experience, and we are also learning from the experiences of others. Countries contacted have included Hungary, Romania and Lithuania.

The Swedish Children’s Ombudsman also plans to apply for Sida funding (see above) for the inauguration of a statistical project in about six countries worldwide, aimed at canvassing children’s own views of their situation and compiling comparative statistics on the subject. This can provide all countries with a tool for responding more adequately to children’s needs and wishes.

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman is assisted by a seven-strong Committee of Experts specially appointed by the Swedish Government. This Committee holds two meetings annually, and topics discussed have comprised conditions for girls and boys, children and stress, and problems and opportunities for children with functional impairment.

During 2001 the Office formed a special expert committee of children and young persons living in the Stockholm region. This Child and Youth Council has about 15 members, aged between 10 and 15, and will above all advise on topics which the Office should address and how it should do so. Maximisation of direct contacts with children and young persons is a prime necessity.

During 2000 and 2001 the Office has served on several parliamentary committees and commission in an expert or special advisory capacity, and it has also taken part in several governmental remits.

Last edited by Barneombudet March 22, 2004
Site hosted by The ombudsman for children in Norway