THE NCHR CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DAY
|
The
world celebrates International Family Day on May 15. |
International
Family Day is about recognising the importance and value of families in our
society. The family plays a crucial role in influencing our lives across so
many areas - including our health and our well-being. The family is the corner
stone of every society, however family is not allowed to play any prominent
role in the so-called welfare states of
Many
of the problems with juvenile delinquency, mobbing and violence in our society
today can be directly attributed to the “modern” child-rearing practices, the
absence of mothers in the homes and the high divorce rate. Instead of helping
families to remain intact, the mainstream policy is to break up families by all
means, even by depriving children of their parents and placing them in foster
homes among total strangers - all under the motto of “the best interests of the
child”. These problems are particularly Swedish but also the same in Norway,
Denmark and Finland.
The
best interest of the child however seems to be best served in the bosom of the
Family.
In
2005, the Swedish government initiated "A New Plan of Action for Human
Rights". The NCHR is one of
the organisations that have been invited to participate in this work. At the
meetings held at the Ministry of Justice in Stockholm on February 10 and May 2,
2005, the NCHR has drawn focus to the issues of the unnecessary taking of
children into public care and placing them in foster homes, the total absence
of the rule of law in the administrative courts and the enormous waste of
billions of taxpayers money because of these cases.
The contribution that the NCHR has made to the "New Plan of Action for
Human Rights" can be found in the Government Missive 2005/2006:95,
page 212 as follows:
"Finally we should mention in connection to the right to private life, that a couple of NGO's have delivered statements concerning family life.
The
Nordic Committee for Human Rights has advanced their views that the taking of
children into public care and placing them in foster homes is harmful for
children and that the level of knowledge within the social services needs to be
strengthened. The organization uses the stories that former foster children
told about the miserable conditions in the orphanages and children's homes on
TV in December 2005 to support their views."
The NCHR was invited to
participate in the government conference on Februari 7, 2008, concerning the
promulgation of "A New Plan of Action for Human Rights 2006-2009"
We are therefore looking forward to seeing concrete measures for the protection
of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms in
Recently
several hundreds of former foster children, from the 1940's and onwards,
founded the organization "Stolen
Childhood" for the sole purpose of suing the different
municipalities in Sweden, starting with Stockholm, for the abuses that they
suffered during their childhood and youth, the lack of love and affection and
respect for their private and family life that the are guaranteed by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European
Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
At
present the case is in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
France.
A similar
case is in progress in Norway.
Ruby
Harrold-Claesson
Ruby Harrold-Claesson
Attorney-at-law
President of the NCHR
Destroying the
Family: Swedish style