NORWAY USES THE CHILD RIGHTS CONVENTION AGAINST ITS PURPOSE

November 2024

For children and young people, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is a document of freedom. The purpose of the UNCRC is to give children rights. When authorities use children’s right to care, protection and the best interests of the child to justify law and policy to allow the use of physical force, restrictions on freedom of movement, or the use of isolation towards children, the UNCRC is being used against its purpose. This cannot be done this way.

Maria Grahn-Farley has visited Norway. She is an expert in children’s rights, a Swedish law professor with a doctorate from Harvard Law School and a Master of Laws (LL.M.). She is a visiting professor at the University of Gothenburg, has worked at universities in England, USA and Sweden and now coordinator of the EU-funded research project HRJust which works in 10 countries. The project looks at how States use human rights to explain and defend their decisions and actions and the consequences of when States use human rights as a governance instrument. In 2021, Maria was awarded the Scandinavian Human Dignity Award for her efforts for children’s rights and human trafficking of children. She is often engaged by Swedish authorities and the judiciary to give lectures on children’s rights.

Maria Grahn-Farley shared important messages:

  • The UNCRC exists to give children rights, not to take away their rights
  • The best interest of the child, the child’s right to protection and care can never be used as justification for the use of physical force, restrictions on freedom of movement, or the use of isolation towards children 

Changefactory has conducted research with children and young people for over 15 years. In the surveys, children and young people have explained how adults have justified decisions about the use of physical force, restrictions on freedom of movement, or the use of isolation towards children with the justification that it was in the “child’s best interest”. They have wondered how adults can make harmful decisions on their behalf and then call it “the best interests of the child”.

Children and young people in institutions have explained that physical force, restrictions on freedom of movement, or the use of isolation towards children 

  • Destroy the child’s trust in the adult who does it, but also in other adults in institutions
  • Give flashbacks and nightmares and retraumatize
  • Creating fear of the adults and thoughts that they will hurt them

Use of physical force, restrictions on freedom of movement, or the use of isolation towards children  can also make life after institution difficult. The injuries can remain in the body for many years.

The authorities in Norway have in recent years used UNCRC art. 3 on the best interests of the child and other articles such as the child’s right to health, development, protection and care as justification and justification for restricting, among other things, the child’s right to freedom of movement, the child’s right to personal integrity, the child’s right to privacy and the child’s right to protection from violence. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is then used against its original purpose, to restricts the rights it gives to children.

Some examples of where this is done:

  • The assessments the The Ministry of Children and families of Chapter 10 of the Child Welfare Act on child welfare institutions
  • The assessments by the Ministry of Education and Research regarding access to physical intervention in the Education Act
  • The Ministry of Justice and Public Security and various parliamentary representatives’ proposals for locked institutions

When the authorities wish to infringe upon children’s fundamental rights or to permit the use of physical force against children, this must be handled in the same way as it would be for adults. They must acknowledge that it constitutes an infringement on a right and take responsibility for the choices they make.

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