Appeal to the Government of India to protect Indian child in Norway

Appeal to the Government of India to protect Indian child in Norway

Your Excellency, Dear Madam,

On behalf of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights - NKMR/NCHR - For the Protection of Family Rights in the Nordic countries, I, the undersigned, Ruby Harrold-Claesson, lawyer, am appealing to Your Excellency to intervene for the protection of the five year old boy, the only child of Anil Kumar and Gurvinderjit Kaur, who was removed by agents of Barnevernet, Norway, from his pre-school, where his parents had left him in total confidence for his safety. The NCHR has been informed that the five year old was taken by Barnevernet and placed in a Norwegian foster home, far away from his parents and loved ones.
Similar gross Human Rights violations against children and their parents take place daily, not only in Norway but also in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The removal of children from their loving, caring, competent families by the agents of barnevernet / the social services and placing them in foster care to live among total strangers, so-called CPS cases, stands out as an atrocity in our time - an atrocity that has several times been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

International standards dictate that - excepting in cases where there is a direct pressing need, i.e. that the child's life is in imminent danger - social issues concerning foreign citizen children should immediately be referred to the Embassy or Consulate before any local physical intervention be made against the child.

The case with this five year old boy is not the only experience that the Government of India has had with Barnevernet. I would therefore wish to remind Your Excellency about the Bhattacharya Case which took place in Stavanger in 2011-2012, in which the Government of India secured the return of the two young Indian children to their native country.

The NKMR/NCHR is therefore urging Your Excellency, to spare no effort in enabling the son of Anil Kumar and Gurvinderjit Kaur to be reunited with his family in Norway or repatriated to India where he can be brought up by his parents or his extended family in the country and culture of his origin, and to which he has been accustomed since birth.

This right to private and family life is guaranteed in Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Article 16 of the UN Child Convention.

About the NKMR/NCHR:
The NKMR/NCHR was founded at Christiansborg, Denmark on November 30, 1996, following the mutual observations of Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish lawyers and other professionals, that at least 90 percent of the cases in which children were removed from their homes and placed in foster homes by the barnevernet / the social services were arbitrary and unnecessary, thus detrimental to the children's healtn and well-being.

The NKMR/NCHR is a participant of The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRP, and we are often invited to participate in international conferences concerning Family Rights.

Linked here, please find the Petition No. 2434-2014, that was signed by 40 prominent nordic lawyers and other professionals and sent to the European Parliament Petitions Committee on December 23, 2013. The Petition was presented at the Petitions Committee, PETI, on April 19, 2016.
On Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012, 32 prominent nordic lawyers and other professionals and sent this Report to the Council of Europe. A series of international Child Care Conferences followed in the wake of our Report.

Children are suffering physical, mental and sexual abuse, some commit suicide or die under mysterious circumstances in foster homes and institutions. Parents in despair commit suicide or suffer heart attacks and die.

The NKMR/NCHR is therefore once again urging Your Excellency, to spare no effort in enabling the son of Anil Kumar and Gurvinderjit Kaur to be reunited with his family and spared further trauma.

Very truly yours,
Ruby Harrold-Claesson, (Mrs)
Lawyer, Gothenburg, Sweden,

President of the NKMR/NCHR
www.nkmr.org/en