THE PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES CELEBRATED PARTY RIGHTS FROM 12 YEARS
June 2025

The majority of the Parliament Committee for Children and families in the Norwegian Storting decided, as part of the consideration of the quality pledge for child welfare that the age of party rights for children should be lowered to 12 years by 2028 🎊 The committee invited the Foster Home Association, Save the Children, the Child Welfare Institutions Committee, The Norwegian Union of Social Workers and Changefactory to a celebration and as a thank you for having fought to strengthen the legal safeguards for children.

Changefactory has worked for many years to lower the age of party rights. Children must receive more information and the right to contradiction in their own case. Because:

• Party rights from the age of 12 will give children the right to information, to express their opinions about information from different adults and to share what is important. When children are well informed, they can express their views more easily and adults can make better decisions for children.
• Many reports have shown over many years that the Child Protection System is unable to make good enough decisions for children and at the same time ensure children’s procedural rights. The consequences of this have been significant. Therefore, children themselves must be a party to their case.
• The Children’s Committee writes in CO no. 13, para. 63 that involving children is an important part of protecting them.
• From the summarised views of children, party rights from the age of 12 will contribute to making decisions more accurate for children.

THANK YOU to the majority in the Norwegian Parliament, who took this very seriously 🥳