Articles 3, 12 & 16
Three articles children in Norway have pointed out as the most important in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UCRC).
Children’s rights for how adults should meet them
Most people in Norway have heard about the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, knowledge from children shows that children’s rights are often not upheld in practice. Professionals tend to learn about the specific national laws (such as the Education Act, Health acts, the Children act or the Child Welfare act) and less about how the provisions of the UNCRC should be applied in practice.
The state is obligated to make the provisions of the UNCRC known to both adults and children, according to article 42 of the Convention. Changefactory works to ensure that Articles 3, 12 and 16 are included in the special laws that govern systems concerning children. Laws and practices are being updated to align with children’s rights under the Convention.
Articles 3, 12 and 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child describe how adults in school, kindergartens, support services, the police and the justice system should act when interacting with children. These articles apply to all decisions and actions affecting children under 18. There is a strong link between these articles and the direct advice from groups of children about how adults should meet with them so that their actions and decisions feel safe and helpful.
Articles 3, 12 and 16:
To be able to assess what is in the best interest of the child, the following rights must first be ensured:
- Children have the right to sufficient and understandable information as a basis for expressing their views freely (UNCRC art. 12)
- Children have the right to speak freely and safely about all matters concerning them (UCRC art. 12, the Norwegian Constitution § 104)
- Children have the right to respect for their privacy and to be informed and consulted before information about them is shared (UNCRC art. 16, ECHR art. 8, the Norwegian Constitution § 102)
The best interest of the child can be assessed only after these rights have been secured (UNCRC art. 3, the Norwegian Constitution § 104). In the assessment, the child’s own opinion must be a key consideration.
Knowledge from children about how adults should meet them
Repeated responses from many children emphasise that adults must work closely and cooperate with them. When something is to be done or decided about a child:
- Children need understandable and useful information
- Children must be able to speak freely and safely
- Children must be consulted and allowed to express their opinions before information is shared
- Children must be heard throughout the process
- Children must always be involved in the decision being made
Why Changefactory works with Articles 3, 12 and 16
Children that Changefactory have met across Norway had for years asked why they didn’t receive enough information before decisions were made about them, and why adults didn’t have to listen to their opinion before determining what was “in the best interests of the child”.
Many children also wondered why the systems were designed so that, when a child told an adult something, the adults could talk freely about it without the child knowing. Some even asked why the laws and guidelines in Norway didn’t ensure that decisions were actually made in their best interest. Many were “fed up” with adults claiming they had made a decision in the child’s best interest – while the situation actually got worse for the child.
Pros had been presenting knowledge from children for years
Since 2004, Changefactory has collected experience and advice from children. In 2009, the organisation began systematically building a knowledge center to provide Norway with insight into public systems – from children’s perspective. Research/surveys was conducted with children who had experience with healthcare services, the child welfare system, schools, institutions, police ,the justice system, and the County Governors.
The experience and advice collected are summarised into knowledge directly from children. Changefactory does the collecting, distribution, and professional development of the knowledge, and provides advice to authorities and politicians based on it. Children and youth are invited to become pros and present the knowledge from children themselves in educational programmes, in dialogue with professionals, politicians, and authorities – both nationally and regionally.
The link between knowledge from children and children’s rights
Sometimes, jurists and lawyers reached out after pros had presented the knowledge from children. They wanted to understand, in practice, the challenges children described. In some of these dialogues, the jurists pointed out how the UNCRC and the General Comments from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child described the rights children have in their interactions with adults.
A rights-based approach in Changefactory’s work, focusing on children’s human rights, was initiated. It quickly became clear that the knowledge from children and children’s procedural rights had many parallels: that children must receive enough and understandable information, that they must be able to speak safely, that they must be informed before anything they have said or done is shared, and that they must be taken seriously in decisions affecting them.