The establishment of a Children’s Division
It was also important to reach the organisations working with children’s rights.
In October 2012, we therefore invited these organisations to the Ombudsman institution to tell them about the Division and start a dialogue with them.
The aim was among other things to enable them to refer relevant children and
young people to the Division.
The general public
To create as much awareness as possible around the opening of the new division
among the general public as well, we issued a press release about the new division
almost every week in the final month before its launch on 1 November 2012.
The Ombudsman and I wrote a feature article which was printed by several
newspapers, and in the final week before the launch of the Children’s Division
there was extensive media coverage about the new division in the Ombudsman
institution and its future tasks. On the launch day, we held a large reception
with the participation of the Chairman of Parliament, the Minister for Social
Affairs and Integration and representatives of the political parties, children’s
organisations etc., relevant authorities and pupil organisations. During the
reception, children worked with an artist to make paintings for the walls of the
Division’s premises and a band of young people played music in the yard. The
media were also invited to this event.
In our view, events since 1 November 2012 have shown that our information
effort prior to the launch of the Children’s Division has paid off. From day one,
the Division has received many complaints, including some from children and
young people. We are, however, very aware that our work is not done. New
children and young people are added all the time and we must therefore continuously review whether we are sufficiently visible, especially to the particularly
vulnerable children living in residential institutions.
The Children’s Division has four overall tasks:
- Receiving complaints involving children, either from children or adults.
-T
aking up so-called own-initiative cases. The Children’s Division may choose to take
up a case on the basis of, for instance, media coverage suggesting that authorities or
private institutions have not complied with legislation or good administrative practice
in relation to children. Own-initiative cases may also be taken up on the basis of infor
mation in a complaint case.
-C
arrying out monitoring visits to private and public institutions.
-A
s a special task, monitoring that the administration complies with the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child and other international obligations aimed at protecting
children’s rights.
63
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