Children’s Right to Information in Barnahus

Abstract

208A. Kaldal et al.The main aim of Swedish Barnahus is to adapt criminal proceedings to the child and let the best interest of the child be the primary consideration when a child victim or witness is the subject of a police investigation. This is stated in the Swedish national guidelines for Barnahus (RPS 2009). The guidelines also state the child's right to participation and the right to information:The child should be informed of measures concerning to him or her, and be given the opportunity to express his or hers views and opinions to the extent and the way his or her maturity allows.As shown by the national guidelines, the child's right to information is interwoven with the child's right to participation. A corresponding view is presented by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, who describe the child's right to information as part of the child's right to participation according to art. 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1 .In order to explore children's right to information in a criminal investigation in Swedish Barnahus, we will (i) describe and analyse the legal and normative basis for the child's right to participation and information; (ii) describe the Barnahus activities in the light of the right to information, with a focus on the criminal investigation; and (iii) analyse how the child's right to information in Barnahus is met in relation to the rights of the child.

Local translations of a universal concept: ‘Child Perspective’ in Swedish social assistance

“…Studies exploring SA as well as other domains of social work show that professionals may have subjective and differing ideas about what applying the child perspective or a child-centric approach actually entails (Jensen Bruheim, Studsrod, & Ellingsten, 2019;Kedell, 2017). The overall picture is that children are rarely treated as social actors and that professionals may have difficulties maintaining a child focus while simultaneously working with parents (Eriksson, 2012;Jensen Bruheim et al, 2019;Kaldal, Landberg, Eriksson, & Svedin, 2016;Kedell, 2017).…”

Policy-making for the diffusion of social innovations: the case of the Barnahus model in the Nordic region and the broader European context

“…It is illustrating that the difficulties to fully comply with children's rights, for instance children's right to information (e.g. Kaldal et al 2017) is not mentioned, not either the fact that many promised effects are not met or still unknown of.…”