Children resolve to make the Nordic region the best place in the world to be young

15.01.20 | News
Astrid Krag og nordiske børn
Photographer
norden.org
Children and young people from all over the Nordic region have come together to draw up a resolution on children’s rights. Today, at the Nordic Children’s Forum in UN City Copenhagen, they will present the resolution to ministers, ombudsmen and others involved in work with young people.

Children and adults should know about young people’s rights, because it makes a difference to the way adults treat us. I hope this resolution will lead to more children learning about their rights, and that politicians will use the resolution to make a difference.

Sylvester, school student

When it comes to decisions that affect them, children and young people must be involved and their opinions must be heard. This is one of the proposals put forward by 65 children and young people from Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Åland. Together, they have drawn up a resolution designed to make the Nordic region the best place in the world to be a child. The Children’s Forum has been organised by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the National Council for Children in Denmark, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Interior and UNICEF Denmark to mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 2019. 

 

 “The basic idea is that both children and adults should know about young people’s rights, because it makes a difference to the way adults treat us. I hope this resolution will lead to more children learning about their rights, and that politicians will use the resolution to make a difference,” says 15-year-old Sylvester, a member of the Danish delegation to the Forum.

The resolution includes specific proposals regarding the family, school, leisure time and communities – the places that the children themselves identified as the ones where they spend the most time. Their work on the resolution is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The initiative started in autumn 2019, when groups of children from the different parts of the Nordic region met to discuss ideas and make proposals for the resolution, which includes a call for greater involvement by children. 

 

“Children have the right to be heard and involved. UNICEF’s ‘rights schools’, at which children and young people work together on resolutions calling for real changes to their day-to-day lives, have had a really positive impact,” says Karen Hækkerup, Secretary-General of UNICEF in Denmark. 

We must be better at listening to and involving children in decisions that affect their own lives. I very much look forward to talking to them today about this very subject. One area in which we must ensure they have a voice and that they have greater protection is those difficult cases in which children who grow up with violence and abuse in the home are taken into care.

Astrid Krag, Minister for Social Affairs and the Interior, Denmark

Nordic politicians listen to children

Political support will be required for the three themes covered by the resolution: involving children and young people; raising awareness of the Convention; and ensuring that all children and young people are part of meaningful communities. To build this support, children’s groups from all of the parts of the Nordic region will work with national adult groups, which will include ministers and ombudsmen. One of the politicians involved is Astrid Krag, Danish Minister for Social Affairs and the Interior, who is delighted that children will have a voice.

 

“We must be better at listening to and involving children in decisions that affect their own lives. I very much look forward to talking to them today about this very subject. One area in which we must ensure they have a voice and that they have greater protection is those difficult cases in which children who grow up with violence and abuse in the home are taken into care,” the minister says. 

 

Paula Lehtomäki, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, agrees.

 

“Putting ideas from children from across the region on the table at the Nordic Children’s Forum will endow them with added value and encourage policy-makers in their ongoing work to involve children and young people. The work on the resolution, and on the goal of making the Nordic region the best place in the world to be a child, will not stop at the end of the Forum. The eight children’s groups will take the resolution and action plans back home with them, and start working with adults to turn the many proposals into reality.”

Putting ideas from children from across the region on the table at the Nordic Children’s Forum will endow them with added value and encourage policy-makers in their ongoing work to involve children and young people.

Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Paula Lehtomäki

About the Nordic Children’s Convention

The Nordic Children’s Forum is a collaboration involving the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and the Interior, the Nordic Council of Ministers, UNICEF Denmark and the National Council for Children in Denmark. The initiative was launched by the Nordic Council of Ministers at a meeting of ministers for social affairs in Reykjavik in 2019. The 65 children from Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Åland drew up the resolution in advance of the Forum. It contains recommendations on how to make the Nordic region the best place in the world to be a child. The resolution forms the basis for national action plans that will be considered at a conference for both children and adults at UN City Copenhagen on Thursday 16 January 2020. 

 

 

The Nordic Council of Ministers is the official body for inter-governmental co-operation in the Nordic Region. It seeks Nordic solutions wherever and whenever the countries can achieve more together than by working on their own.