Some important results of the activities of the Children’s Ombudsman 1993-1999

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman works on a long-term, strategic basis with a view to actively influencing legislation so as to bring it more closely into line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Ombudsman’s proposals have met with a positive response in a number of fields, but implementation of the Convention in Sweden is taking a long time. It is a process in which many different agents have to co-operate in order to change attitudes towards children and young persons and their rights. Information and opinion formation are two of the methods which the Ombudsman employs. But information in itself does not necessarily lead to an improvement in the living conditions of children and young persons. Information has to be translated into knowledge and concrete action.

One of the problems with evaluating the work of the Ombudsman is that one cannot say for sure what or who has been the cause of the results one is measuring. Society today is far too complex for that, and there are a number and variety of agents working to disseminate the Convention or related issues. The time factor is another difficulty, because it can take several years for a proposed legislative amendment to come into force. The Social Services Act is one such example. The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman proposed amendments to it in the autumn of 1993, but they only came into force in 1997. Thus the effect of that effort could not be measured until just over four years later.

Another difficulty arises in cases where opinion of the question is divided between different political parties and/or interest groups, as for example with the ban on the possession of child pornography, which gave rise to a vigorous debate. This too can mean a long time elapsing between a proposal and its realisation. Lastly there is a problem connected with an Ombudsman’s mandate, which is assumed to imply a critical attitude towards other public agencies. Very often this can result in national authorities, municipalities, county councils or NGOs taking a negative attitude towards the Ombudsman, which in turn can impede any evaluation of the Ombudsman’s work on a particular issue.

Summing up, it is hard to measure in concrete terms the effect of the Ombudsman’s particular efforts with regard to a certain question. If anything, the essential consideration must be whether the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman has defined relevant targets for its work and whether its activities have been conducted with a content and design which ought reasonably to move things forward in the desired direction and towards the predefined objectives.

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Ombudsman has taken part in official consultation processes and has communicated viewpoints and proposals directly to various ministries or to various committees and Government Commissions. One such example is the proposal submitted to the Social Services Committee, which mentions the Ombudsman’s contribution in its report. Another example is viewpoints conveyed to the Ministry of Justice in connection with the ministerial memorandum dealing with the right of the child to express its opinions in custody and access proceedings.

There are quite a number of important areas of the law where the work of the Ombudsman has meant a great deal and led to important changes. One of the basic principles of the Convention, Article 3 – the principle of the child’s best interests, is now described as a preamble to the Code of Parenthood and Guardianship, the Aliens Act and the Social Services Act. Another of the Convention’s basic principles, Article 12 – the child’s right to express opinions, is now formulated both in the Aliens Act, in the Code of Parenthood and Guardianship and in the Social Services Act.

The Convention in municipalities and county councils

From the very outset, the Ombudsman has actively insisted that the Convention is also to be regarded as a municipal responsibility.

Through two national questionnaires circulated to all municipalities, the Ombudsman has chartered the progress they have made in their work relating to the Convention. In addition, through active opinion formation, partly through the Internet, and intensive information activity involving production of a special manual on the Convention, One step forward (sw: Ett steg framŒt), the Ombudsman has induced a large number of municipalities and some county councils to begin work on incorporating the Convention at local and regional levels.

A national strategy

One question which the Ombudsman has for a long time been pursuing and in various ways has addressed in annual reports to the Government in 1994, 1996 and 1997 concerns the need for a national strategy to accelerate work on the incorporation of the Convention at all levels in society.

In March 1999 the Riksdag (parliament) passed the Government Bill entitled Strategy for realising in Sweden the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. That Bill contains most of the proposals previously put forward by the Ombudsman, e.g. as regards education, terms of reference to committees and Government Commissions, municipal child and youth plans and models for follow-up and evaluation. The Ombudsman has been allotted a key role in this work and, moreover, MSEK 12 extra funding for a three-year period.

Rights of children and young persons

The Ombudsman shall highlight and articulate society’s responsibility towards children and young persons, shall disseminate a knowledge of the needs and rights of children and young persons and shall ensure that their rights are provided for. If this is not found to be the case, the Ombudsman shall propose measures to the Government. We are to devote special attention to groups of children and young persons in vulnerable situations.

Bullying

Between 1995 and 1997 the Children’s Ombudsman was tasked by the Government with co-ordinating work for the prevention of bullying, its task being to illuminate the problem and to intensify efforts by the community to prevent bullying. About 6,000 letters were written to 13-year-olds for the purpose of highlighting their own knowledge and importance in the campaign against bullying. The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman compiled working material for use in schools and a report proposing measures of education and legislation in this field which was later submitted to the Government. Among other things, the report formed the basis of a hearing organised by the Ministry of Education and, subsequently, of a Government Bill introduced in the autumn of 1997.

The Ombudsman has conducted intensive opinion-formation work, including several debate articles, and radio and television appearances, whereby the problem of bullying has been discussed and illuminated in public social debate. In this way decision-makers and others working with children and young persons have been made more knowledgeable and committed on the subject of bullying. Many schools have also begun active work for the prevention of bullying. It is too early yet to say how far this work has resulted in fewer children and young persons being bullied.

Asylum-seeking children

The Ombudsman has won the sympathy of the Government and Riksdag for a better child perspective in immigrant and refugee policy. Among other things, the principle of the child’s best interests and the principle of the child’s right to express opinion have been made a part of the Aliens Act. The Ombudsman has secured the inclusion in the report of the Immigrant Policy Committee of a proposal that municipalities set aside funding for compulsory language pre-school education from age three onwards for children having a home language other than Swedish. The Ombudsman has also conveyed viewpoints to the National Board of Health and Welfare concerning their assignment with reference to children in hiding.

Unsuitable staff in school and child care services

In a debate article published in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest daily, and in its annual report for 1997, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman proposed that a Government Commission be appointed to review the need for greater possibilities of checking up on the staff of pre-schools, schools and child care services. This was prompted by a number of widely publicised cases where staff in schools and child care services had physically and sexually abused children. The Government then appointed a Commission to review ways in which an employer can assess the suitability of applicants for employment in schools, pre-school education and school child care. The Ombudsman’s proposal concerning assessment of suitability is mentioned in the terms of reference. The Commission submitted its report in the spring of 1998, and its proposals concur on the whole with the viewpoints previously expressed by the Ombudsman.

Child abuse

In the spring of 1998 the Government decided to appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate questions concerning children and young persons subjected to mental, physical or sexual abuse. The terms of reference for the Commission refer to the Ombudsman having demanded such an inquiry in 1996. That demand was prompted by the inadequate statistics available on the subject, by reports of a growing number of complaints concerning child abuse, and by the fact of no such broad-based inquiry having been undertaken previously. The Children’s Ombudsman has been appointed special adviser to the Commission.

Ban on possession of child pornography

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman conveyed special viewpoints on the terms of reference for the Special Commission on Child Pornography. We also had several contacts with the Commission in the course of its work. The Government Bill made reference to the Ombudsman’s viewpoints.

Pupil welfare and school health care

Reporting to the Government in 1996, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman also found that pupil welfare and school health care were in need of investigation, in view of the disturbing cuts in spending which were being made by municipal authorities, above all where pupil welfare was concerned. We therefore recommended that a Commission be set up to work out common general guidelines. The terms of reference for a Commission of this kind were finalised in 1998 and the Ombudsman is included in a reference group affiliated to the Commission.

Participation for children and young persons

Participation and co-determination for children and young persons, i.e. Article 12 of the Convention, are among the questions which the Ombudsman has most at heart. The view taken by children and young persons of reality and of what matters in life – the child perspective, in other words – must permeate society in quite a different way from what is at present the case. The work of the Children’s Ombudsman concerning participation for children and young persons is above all aimed at strengthening their own possibilities of having their opinions taken into consideration in pre-school education, in school, in the municipal decision-making process, in clubs and societies and in the community at large.

Already in its 1994 report to the Government, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman proposed that it should be the duty of municipalities to obtain viewpoints from children and young persons, who are not entitled to vote, on matters affecting them and to the extent judged possible. Since then the Ombudsman has elaborated this into a proposal for the amendment of the Local Government Act to similar effect.

The Ombudsman’s legislative proposal has been discussed by the parliamentary Children Committee. The majority of the members of the committee wish to defer an amendment to the Local Government Act as proposed by the Ombudsman, while two of the members recorded a dissenting opinion and felt that the Act should be amended as soon as possible. The Ombudsman’s proposal has formed the basis of a report, in a series of publications from the Democracy Commission on children and democracy during the 20th century.

BUS – safety of children and young persons

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman is required by its standing instructions to take the initiative in co-ordinating and developing society’s protective measures in the field of child safety, for children and young persons up to the age of 18. The measures taken shall be aimed at instilling among children and young persons both risk awareness and capacity for action. The Ombudsman also wishes to contribute towards a development of research and knowledge in this field and to provision, in legislation and the administration of justice, for the special needs and circumstances of children and young persons.

Over a three-year period, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman organised “BUS Weeks“, an annual national manifestation for matters of child safety, based on a special network of various sectorial authorities and organisations. As a result of these annual BUS Weeks, questions concerning children’s and young persons’ safety have come to carry more and more weight with several central authorities and organisations. A number of municipalities have set up permanent BUS groups and introduced routines for continuous BUS programming.

The annual press seminars convened by the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman on such subjects as child safety in the home, in its immediate surroundings and in play spaces, and also in child care and schools, have helped to make the media very interested in these questions, which in turn has contributed towards a growth of knowledge concerning child accidents and child safety, not least on the part of municipalities and county councils.

The Work Environment Act

In its 1998 report to the Government, the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman presented two proposals, namely that the Work Environment Act should also apply to children in pre-school education, and that the Act should be given a better child perspective.

Since then, several Private Members’ Bills have been introduced in the same field, based on the Ombudsman’s proposals. The terms of reference for a Commission set up to review the Education Act require it to “review and if necessary propose changes to other rules with a view to strengthening safety, protection and security in child care and school activities, especially as regards legislation on the working environment, public health and medical care.“

Last edited by Barneombudet March 22, 2004
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