NEW BOOK: Marit Skivenes is co-editor of a book analyzing the status of children’s rights in Norway.
Within a short span of 29 years, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has emerged as a central yardstick in assessing policies and practices concerning children. Norway signed the Convention in 1990 (as one of the first to do so), and ratified it a year later.
Norway performs exceptionally well on certain global indexes measuring children’s rights, such as the Save the Children index and Kids Rights Index. However, the level of compliance and implementation by Norway with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child attracts criticism in a number of areas.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has been particularly critical in a number of areas, such as asylum, child protection, disability, and poverty. Concerns have also been raised by non-governmental organisations, the Children’s Ombudsmen, and researchers.
Leading Norwegian researchers
The new book seeks to offer a rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis of the status of children’s right in Norway, and the implementation of and compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
PHOTO: Universitetsforlaget
It assesses the extent to which the current structural framework contributes to real change for children and young people, and the extent to which policies and laws successfully incorporate and implement children’s human rights in the public and private spheres.
The book “Child Rights in Norway” is edited by Malcolm Langford, Marit Skivenes, and Karl Søvig, and is published in English by Universitetsforlaget. The book is an Open Access publication. It includes twelve studies of particular rights conducted by leading Norwegian researchers, and also a proposal for a set of relevant and actionable indicators of children’s rights that could be regularly measured and reported.
Chapter on Right to Protection
Marit Skivenes has also contributed with a book chapter on Children’s Right to Protection, with Asgeir Falch-Eriksen (OsloMet). In this chapter the authors point to five possible blind spots in the Norwegian child protection system.
- Summary of the chapter
- Langford, M., Skivenes, M. & Søvig, K. (eds.) Children’s Rights in Norway: An Implementation Paradox?. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.