Why was the NCHR founded?
In 1871 the governments of the Nordic countries embarked upon a venture of legislation co-operation. The goal was to achieve uniform legislation in Scandinavia. The legislation co-operation between the Scandinavian countries still exists. There is a very strong, pronounced resemblance especially in the social domain with regards to the laws, the institutions created to implement them and the methods of implementation.
Presentation of our work
In Sweden, and the other Nordic countries, the welfare state has permitted the social authorities to take children into public care. The instrument used is the Law on the ward of Minors (LVU). Thousands of children have been - and are being - taken from their parents and placed in foster homes among complete strangers. These foster homes are often of poor quality and their prime aim is to earn money off the foster children. Foster parents are very well paid to take care of foster children. The families whose children are taken into public care are often lone parents, unemployed and/or on welfare. Immigrant families are very often exposed and affected in this context. The social authorities are very quick to jump to the conclusion that these parents could impossibly be suitable parents. It goes without saying that this is not necessarily the case. The fact that a person does not fit into the very competitive work-market does not make him or her unsuitable as a parent.
In the Nordic countries, quite unlike the Catholic countries of Europe, very little respect is shown for family and private life. The right to respect for private and family life is guaranteed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights and Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Lawyers and other professionals who work with cases where children are taken into public care have reacted strongly against these unjust practices and the shortcomings of the Nordic social bureaucrats. In order to bring about a change in the attitudes of the authorities towards the families where parents and children are suffering greatly because of state interventions in their private and family life, we have started a co-operation between our countries.
NCHR was founded at Christiansborg, in Copenhagen on November 30, 1996.
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