CHILD RIGHTS IN SWEDEN

Examination by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child of the

Fourth Periodic Report of the State Party (Sweden) at its 51st session (25
May - 12 June 2009, Geneva)
On 27 May 2009, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child considered the fourth periodic
report of Sweden on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

SUMMARY OF THE COMMITTEE’S CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Independent Monitoring

The Committee is concerned that children cannot address their individual complaints to the
Ombudsman.
The Committee is also concerned that the Ombudsman’s role needs to be clearly independent
from the Government, in accordance with the Paris Principles.

The Committee recommends that:

I. The State party consider providing the Children’s Ombudsman with the mandate
to investigate individual complaints;
II. The annual report of the Children’s Ombudsman be presented to the Riksdag
(Parliament), together with suggestions for measures that the Government can take
to implement the recommendations of the Children’s Ombudsman;
III. The State ensure that the Children’s Ombudsman has adequate human and
financial resources to exercise his or her mandate effectively and independently;
and
IV. The State party provides the Children’s Ombudsman with the necessary support to
set up local offices with the aim of ensuring accessibility of all children to the
Ombudsman, especially taking into account disparities in resources between
counties and regions.

P.O. Box 2100, Route de Ferney 150,

CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel +41/22-791 61 11
Fax +41/22-791 66 30, E-mail info@lutheranworld.org
Non-Discrimination

The Committee reiterates its previous concern that, despite the adoption of legislative guarantees,
including the new Anti-Discrimination Act, the principle of non-discrimination is not fully
respected in practice, and it is particularly concerned about de facto discrimination against and
xenophobia and racist attitudes towards children of ethnic minorities, refugee and asylum-seeking
children and children belonging to migrant families.

Harmful Internet Content

The Committee welcomes the enactment of a new law criminalizing any intent to approach
children on the Internet under a fictitious identity (i.e. adults pretending to be a child) and the
activities of the Government Committee Media Council, aiming at combating unlawful and
harmful content on the Internet.

The Committee encourages the State Party to take all necessary measures, to ensure the
protection of the child from information and material harmful to his or her well-being.

Follow-up to the UN Study on Violence against Children

With reference to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on violence against

children, the Committee recommends that the State party pay particular attention to the
following recommendations:

I. To prioritize prevention;
II. To promote non-violent values and awareness-raising;
III. To provide recovery and social reintegration services;
IV. To ensure participation of children;
V. To create accessible and child-friendly reporting systems and services.

Institutional Child Care

The Committee is concerned at the high number of children who have been removed from their
families and live in foster homes or other institutions. The Committee is also concerned at the
number of children who run away from home or are forced to leave home.

The Committee expresses its concern at the insufficient supervision and monitoring of alternative
care facilities, including private alternative care or homes for care and residence and at the lack of
effective complaint mechanisms for children without parental care, including children placed in
private alternative care.

The Committee recommends that the State party:

I. take measures to address the causes of the high number of children who are
removed from their families and ensure that the children who run away or are
forced to leave home have access to services and get the necessary advice and
support;

II. further develop and implement programmes and policies to prevent the placement
of children in institutions and ensure that removal from the family and placement
in foster care or institutions is used only when in the best interests of the child.
 III. ensure adequate supervision and monitoring of the situation of children placed in
foster homes or institutions

IV. ensure the provision of effective, well-known, independent and impartial complaint
mechanisms for children without parental care;

V. provide adequate follow-up and reintegration support and services for children
who leave instititutional care.

Children with disabilities

The Committee notes with concern that children with disabilities are limited in their participation
in cultural and recreational activities. The Committee is concerned that children with disabilities
are invisible and society often focuses on the disability itself rather than on the child.

Adolescent health

The Committee is concerned about the high incidence of eating disorders among adolescents,
specifically bulimia and anorexia nervosa among girls.

Furthermore, the Committee is concerned about the growing problems of overweight and obesity
among Swedish children as a result of low physical activity combined with a poor diet and that,
according to current studies, perceived stress is still a problem among adolescents.

The Committee recommends that the State party pay strengthen measures to:

I. Address the occurrence of eating disorders, including bulimia and anorexia

nervosa;
II. Address overweight and obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle among adolescents,
including physical activity;
III. Reduce the stress level of adolescents and assist them in overcoming the effect; and
IV. Ensure that treatment and counseling measures are gender sensitive and subject to
an inter-sectoral and integrated approach.

Sexually Transmitted Infections and Unwanted Teenage Pregnancies

The Committee expresses its concern at the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as
well as the increasing rate of unwanted teenage pregnancies and abortions among girls from 15 to
19 years of age.

The Committee recommends that the State party:

I. increase its measures to analyze and combat the spread of STIs

II. strengthen sexual and reproductive health education for adolescents, in school and
out of school, with a view to reducing the incidence of unwanted teenage pregnancies
and abortions
 III. provide pregnant teenage girls with the necessary assistance and access to health
care and education.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

The Committee is concerned that limited treatment possibilities exist for drug users below 18
years of age.
The Committee is also concerned that there are no statistics on the number of heavy drug users
below 18 years and on how many of them are injecting drugs. The Committee is also concerned
about the large number of children who suffer as a result of their parents’ drug abuse.

The Committee recommends that the State party:

I. provide children and parents with accurate and objective information about the
harmful consequences of substance abuse;

II. ensure the provision of necessary evidence-based support, recovery and

reintegration services to all children affected by substance abuse, including drug
users below 18 years of age and children suffering as a result of their parents’ drug
abuse, aimed at effectively reducing the harmful consequences of such abuse;

Standard of living

The Committee expresses its concern at the large disparities in the level of child poverty within
and between municipalities, and urban boroughs.

The Committee also notes with concern the very high proportion of immigrant children living in
households with a persistently low income and the continuing deterioration in the economic
situation of children from non-Swedish backgrounds and children living in single-parent
households.

The Committee recommends that the State party take adequate measures, including special
support measures, to ensure that children, in particular those from socially disadvantaged
families, are not living in poverty, regardless of where they reside

Education

The Committee is concerned that children without residence permit, in particular “children in
hiding” and undocumented children, do not enjoy the right to education. However, the
Committee notes the statement by the State party in its replies to the List of issues that the
Government plans to appoint a supplementary inquiry to propose how the right to education
can be further extended.

The Committee recommends that the State party pursue its efforts to ensure that all
children enjoy the right to education, including children without residence permit, such as
“children in hiding” and undocumented children.
The Committee is also concerned at the high number of adolescents, who stay unemployed after
finishing school.

The Committee recommends that the State party expand and strengthen measures
supporting adolescents to acquire the vocational competencies and qualifications required to
find an occupation. Schools and institutions, which train and further qualify adolescents
with difficulties accessing the labour market, should receive adequate financial and
personnel resources to effectively assist such adolescents in the transition from school to the
labour market.

Asylum-seeking and refugee children

The Committee is concerned that, although there is new legislation providing asylum-seekers and
“children in hiding” with a right to health care, undocumented children only have a right to urgent
medical care, with no subsidies.

The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that all children, including
undocumented children, have a right to health care and medical services under the same
conditions as children legally residing in the country.

The Committee welcomes the transfer of responsibility for reception and housing of
unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from the Swedish Migration Board to the municipalities.
Nonetheless, the Committee continues to be concerned about the large number of unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children who disappear from reception centres in the State party. These children
are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

The Committee urges the State party to strengthen measures to ensure that adequate
support and supervision are provided to children living in reception centres, as well as
adequate psychological and psychiatric care for traumatized asylum-seeking children.

The Committee urges the State Party to take the necessary legislative steps to ensure the
appointment of a temporary guardian (or “trustee”) for each unaccompanied asylum-
seeking child within 24 hours of his or her arrival in the country, with a task of informing
the child about his or her legal situation as well as available legal immigration procedures.

Sexual exploitation and trafficking

The Committee is concerned about the prevalence of trafficking in children for the purposes, inter
alia, of sexual and economic exploitation.

The Committee recommends that the State party:

I. fully implement the national actions plans for sexual exploitation of children and
against prostitution and trafficking in people for sexual purposes, in order to protect
children against trafficking;

II. strengthen measures to protect children who are victims of sexual exploitation,
including trafficking and prostitution, and bring perpetrators of sexual abuse and
 exploitation to justice, and provide data on the extent and patterns of such offences
in the next periodic report;

III. train law-enforcement officials, judges and prosecutors on how to receive, monitor
and investigate complaints in a child-sensitive manner that respects confidentiality;

IV. implement programmes for the prevention, recovery and social reintegration of child
victims;

V. ensure that education and training, as well as psychological assistance and

counselling, are provided to child victims of trafficking.

***
The full text of the Committee’s concluding observations available from the LWF Office
of International Affairs & Human Rights on request, or online at:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/co/CRC-C-SWE-CO-4.pdf

***

For further information please contact:

Patrik Sebastian Schmidt

Office for International Affairs & Human Rights
The Lutheran World Federation
P.O. Box 2100, Route de Ferney 150
CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel +41 22 791 63 65
Fax +41 22 791 66 30
E-mail: psc@lutheranworld.org
www.lutheranworld.org