This study examines the construction of children and children’s rights in the context of corporate responsibility. Businesses often work with children in their philanthropic work, but have not been expected to integrate children’s rights in their core activities. The relationship between businesses and children is therefore poorly understood. This study aims to develop a better understanding of this relationship by studying the construction of children in corporate responsibility policies and website presentations. The point of departure for the analysis is that children are a minority group, meaning that they share certain characteristics and face shared problems. In order to do this, CSR theories and previous CSR research is presented from a children’s rights perspective, which provides a theoretical framework for the empirical analysis. The analysis examines cases of current relationships between businesses and children. This is done by analyzing the construction of children in the corporate responsibility policies of six companies. In order to structure the analysis, a categorization system is used which defines six distinct relationships between business and children. The study found that the internal disagreements within the field of CSR has significant implications on children’s rights and their resolution is necessary for true integration of children’s rights into CSR. Further, the children were constructed vastly differently between the companies as well as between the categories. The relationship is also contingent upon the general recognition of responsibilities by a company.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to look into how social secretaries describe their work with children's participation in the assessment that is carried out at short-term residential facilities for families. Through their descriptions we can gain knowledge of what significance these social workers give children's participation in this context and create more nuances in the overall view on children's participation in Swedish child services. Built in this purpose, we have been interested in how the institutional circumstances can affect children's participation. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with seven social secretaries working in three different facilities for families in two Swedish municipalities. Based on our theoretical assumptions, which are Shier’s pathway to participation (2001) and the interpretation that Svensson, Johnsson and Laanemets (2008) made of Michael Lipsky's (1980/2010) concept of discretion, the interviews have been interpreted and analysed. We have anchored the essay's analysis framework in a social-constructivist approach.  Our results show that the social secretaries places great emphasis on children's participation throughout the assessment process. The work is carried out in an incorporated way where the approach is characterized by seeing the child as an active part and a main person who has the right to participation in ways that works for that specific child. The descriptions show the individual secretaries' ability for child-friendly adaptation in working methods, as well as a shared responsibility for competence development. Experience are referred to as important, as well as reflection on the personal factors that can limit the work. In the result, we can see that a problematic theme lies in the interaction between the social secretary, the parents and the children. The family is in a difficult situation, often enlarged by the intervention in the family's life that moving to the facility entails. How well the collaboration works depends on the possibility to communicate and create relationships built on trust, which directly affects the degree of the child's participation. The result also contains recurring descriptions of how the social secretary decides when the child should be protected from burdensome details, mainly concerning the parents, which can also be regarded as a limiting factor.  Conclusions we have drawn are that children's participation has a central position in these organisations, seen as an indisputable right for all children regardless of age and ability. The discretion of the social secretaries is not limited by organizational factors such as heavy workload or lack of time. It is mainly collaboration difficulties with the family that affect children's participation. However, frequent contact with the family during the long assessment period at the facility create good basis for cooperation, as well as the high degree of transparency and openness that permeates the assessment work according to the social secretaries. Success in relationship-building becomes crucial to children's participation, especially as the path to the child often goes through the parent.

This research contributes to understanding the attitudes of Russian politicians towards sex education in schools and the kind of argumentation styles they use to oppose it. The paper is based on a framing analysis of the arguments of two important opponents to sex education: Pavel Astakhov, a Russian politician and former Children’s Rights Commissioner from 2009 to 2016; and Yelena Mizulina, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Women and Children since 2008, using online media sources in a ten-year period (2011-2021). The analysis finds that Astakhov’s most used frames are the disapproval of children’s exposure to new, different attitudes, the interference in Russian traditions by the West and the spread of a gender discourse in Russia. Mizulina focuses mainly on the unfitness of teachers since sex education should only be addressed by parents, and on the “right age” to start talking about it with young people. From the results, both politicians seem to strongly oppose comprehensive sex education (CSE), but Astakhov proposes to adopt a type of abstinence-only curriculum (AO), while Mizulina tries to completely discourage sex education of any kind for school-aged children.

The aim of this study is to investigate how administrators of financial aid experience that legislation and municipal guidelines take a children’s rights perspective into consideration, and whether there, within the organizational structure and its norms, is room for maneuvering in order to meet the needs of children. A children’s perspective has since long been included in Socialtjänstlagen and has only gotten stronger since The Convention on the Rights of the Child became a part of Swedish legislation. According to research prior to this study the public debate has been lively as to what is an acceptable living standard for children and whether or not the conditions should be allowed to be affected by the limited recourses of the guardians. The results of the study show how the financial aids administration mainly focuses on an adult perspective where demands on guardians sometimes trump the needs of children. Furthermore, the study shows that there is no unanimous answer to what can be considered a reasonable standard of living for children. This causes administrators of financial aid to be caught between two contradictory sensations. On the one hand they feel relatively free in how they can maneuver within the guidelines given by the organization, on the other hand they are restrained by national guidelines. In summary it is apparent that the children’s rights perspective within financial aid is dependent on a large number of parameters ranging from the individual human standpoint to the national and formal ones, all of which need to be taken into consideration.

Barnperspektivet har inte alltid prioriterats i Sveriges lagstiftning och barn har heller inte alltid fått vara delaktiga i beslut gällande sig själva. Regeringen skrev en proposition med argument för att inkorporera barnkonventionen till svensk lag och den 1 januari år 2020 genomfördes detta. Denna studies syfte har varit att se hur barnperspektivet, samt barns rättigheter kommer till uttryck i propositionen till barnkonventionen, vilka argument som har använts för att motivera inkorporeringen samt hur detta kan avse påverka det sociala arbetet. Studien har tre frågeställningar formulerade utifrån syftet som har besvarats genom metoden What’s the problem represented do be (WPR), som är en analysmetod inom policyanalys, samt med ett barndomssociologiskt perspektiv. Resultatet har visat att barnperspektivet samt barns rättigheter är centrala begrepp i propositionen samt att ett stärkande av dessa i praktiken är ett av argumenten som används för att inkorporera barnkonventionen. Deras starkaste och återkommande argument grundas i att stärka barnets rättigheter och delaktighet i beslut samt att öka barnperspektivet i myndighetsutövning. I samband med beslutet att inkorporera barnkonvention i svensk lag tillkom det nya transformeringar av befintliga lagar, vilket i sin tur påverkar det sociala arbetet, både i arbetssätt och metoder, samt i förhållningssättet gentemot barn. Ett sätt som lagstiftaren kunnat avse att påverka det sociala arbetet är genom att implementera ett ökat barnrättsbaserat synsätt, vilket ska genomsyra alla verksamheter som arbetar med och för barn.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how South African and Swedish legislation as wellas case law regarding domestic violence and punishment against children is presented in both legal systems. Two methods are used as help to answer the two core questions in this thesis.The result of the study showed that the definitions of physical, psychological and sexual abusein both countries are listed as the same assaults and each country has an obligation to relocate children that have been exposed to those forms of violence. Many children in both countries have experienced some type of domestic violence during their childhood which makes the institutions whom work and have qualifications in questions regarding abused children to protect them from all forms of violence and have to strive more in order to make a better living for the next generations forward. When it comes to decision making courts and authorities in both countries have an obligation to always act in the child’s best interest which clearly appears in both constitutions.

Introduction. We investigated how librarians viewed childhood, children’s participation and their own profes- sional role in relation to these two topics. Recently the Convention on the Rights of the Child became law in Sweden, and we explored the possible effects on the library professional’s role in comparison to a country where little has been done in regard to children’s rights during the past few years. Method. Qualitative interviews were conducted in Sweden and in England. The empirical data consisted of tran- scriptions and note-taking from four interviews conducted in each country. In total we interviewed eight librarians working with children. Analysis. We carried out a qualitative analysis of the empirical data by a basic thematic approach. The analysis consisted of two separate parts - based on the data from Sweden and England respectively - leading up to a final joint discussion and comparison of our results. Results. There was a pattern of viewing the child more often as “becoming” in England. When the child was viewed as “being” in England this was linked to a norm of children feeling safe, happy and playful. The analysis showed that formal training and awareness of children’s rights to participate were greater amongst the Swedish librarians. Still, children were not actively involved in the planning of events at the library. Conclusion. The views conveyed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child is now part of the Swedish librari- ans’ professional role with an emphasis on the right of participation. In the case of English librarians, certain aspects of the convention are important, although the need for children’s participation seems to have been set aside in favor of children’s feeling of safety. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka och ge en bild av hur svenska kommuner arbetar med att implementera Barnkonventionen i deras planeringsprocess. Studien genomfördes genom att skicka ut en enkätundersökning till alla Sveriges 290 kommuner för att skapa en uppfattning om vilka metoder och tillvägagångssätt kommuner använder, vilket resulterade i svar från 123 kommuner som studiens resultat baserades på. Det undersöktes även vilket av Boverkets tre definitioner av perspektiv på barn (Barns perspektiv, Barnperspektivet och Barnrättsperspektivet) svenska kommuner använder för att ge barn större inflytande och en ökad delaktighet i deras planeringsprocess. Studien undersökte även om det finns en eventuell skillnad i kommuners arbete beroende på deras befolkningsstorlek, samt vad detta kan bero på och leda till. Chi²-tester användes för att analysera kommunernas svar på enkäten och finna eventuella samband mellan variabler som kommunens befolkningsstorlek och deras svar på enkätfrågor. Ett eventuellt samband visar att det finns en skillnad i kommunens befolkningsstorlek och hur långt i arbetet med barns delaktighet i planeringsprocessen kommunen har kommit. Kommunernas svar kommer även att kategoriseras genom en delaktighetsmodell från UNICEF, vilket visar till vilken grad barn är delaktiga i kommunens planeringsprocess. Resultatet visar att svenska kommuner har kommit olika långt samt arbetar på olika sätt med implementeringen av Barnkonventionen. Via analyser, baserad på tillgängliga data går det att finna ett antal samband mellan kommunernas befolkningsstorlek och hur arbetet med barns delaktighet i planeringsprocessen går till. Befolkningsmässigt större kommuner ger barn i bredare utsträckning en mer delaktig roll i sin planering, då undersökningen visade att det är en större procentandel befolkningsmässigt stora kommuner där barn är delaktiga i planeringsprocessen. Samtidigt använder befolkningsmässigt mindre kommuner sig av metoder som ger barnen en större möjlighet att uttrycka sina åsikter och synpunkter på ett värdefullt sätt, som exempelvis workshops där kommunen kan arbeta närmare barnen tack vare den mindre befolkningsstorleken. Studien visar att majoriteten av de medverkande kommunerna uppnår minimikravet i delaktighetsmodellen, dock finns det förbättringspotential i synsättet på barn som en viktig tillgång i den fysiska planeringen. Om fler kommuner väljer att använda sig av Barns perspektiv kan kommuner ha ett synsätt som ger barn en större chans att vara delaktiga och få sina åsikter hörda, och sedan användas som beslutsunderlag / The purpose of this study is to investigate and provide a picture of how Swedish municipalities are working to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in their planning process. The study was conductedby sending out a survey to all 290 municipalities in Sweden in order to get an idea of the methods and approaches used by municipalities. The survey resulted in 123 answers which the result of the study then was based on. It was also investigated which of three perspectives on children by the definition of the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (The Children’s perspective, The Children’s rights perspective, and the Child perspective) Swedish municipalities use to give children more influence and participation in their planning process. The study also investigated whether there is a possible difference in the work of municipalities depending on their population size, and its causes. Chi-square tests were used to analyze the municipalities' responses to the questionnaire and to find possible correlations between variables such as the size of the municipality's population and their answers to the questionnaire questions. A possible correlation would show that there is a difference based on the population of the municipality and their progress to implement the CRC. The responses of the municipalities will also be categorized using a UNICEF participation model, in which the municipalities are placed at different levels in the model based on the level of participation by children in the planning process. The results show that Swedish municipalities have made different progress and are working in different ways with the implementation of the CRC. Analyses based on the available data reveal a number of associations between the size of the municipalities' populations and the way in which children's participation in the planning process is handled. Larger municipalities in terms of population give children a more participatory role in their planning, which were shown by the higher level of percentage of child participation in more populated municipalities. While smaller municipalities in terms of population use methods, such as workshops, that give children a greater opportunity to express their views and opinions in a meaningful way. The study shows that the majority of the participating municipalities meet the minimum requirements of the participation model, but there is room for improvement in the approach to children as an important asset in spatial planning. If more municipalities choose to use the Child perspective, municipalities can have an approach that gives children a greater chance to be involved and have their opinions heard, which would then be used as a basis for decisions.

FN:s barnkonvention blev svensk lag januari år 2020, med målsättningen att barnets bästa och barns rättigheter tydligt skulle genomsyra praktiken. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur chefer inom barn- och ungdomsenheten på socialtjänsten beskriver förändringar i verksamheten med anledning av barnkonventionens införande som lag. För att besvara studiens syfte användes en kvalitativ studiedesign i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer, där totalt sju respondenter från sex olika kommuner fick representera empirin. Empirin analyserades med stöd av kvalitativ innehållsanalys och som teoretisk förklaringsmodell användes grunderna i en implementeringsteori. Studiens resultat visade att barnkonventionen implementerats olika mycket och på olika sätt i Sveriges kommuner. Skillnader i arbetssätt var till stor grad beroende av i vilken omfattning verksamheterna hade implementerat barnkonventionen. Den främsta skillnaden var att implementeringen har lett till en större tydlighet i arbetet, samt att barnets rättigheter har fått ett större fokus. Slutsatsen av studien visade på att staten behöver utveckla riktlinjer för hur barnkonventionen ska implementeras, samt säkerställa att samtliga kommuner får samma förutsättningar. Studien visade på ett vidare behov av att forska på vilka förändringar implementeringen har lett till inom socialtjänstens andra områden som inte direkt riktar sig mot barn. / The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child became Swedish law in January 2020, with the aim that the best interests of the child and children's rights should permeate the practice. The purpose of this study was to examine how social services managers within the children and youth unit describe changes in the organization due to the incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as law. In order to answer the purpose of the study, a qualitative study design was chosen in the form of semi-structured interviews where seven respondents from six different municipalities were allowed to represent the results. The empirical data was analyzed with support from the implementation theory. The results of the study showed that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been implemented to varying degrees and in different ways in Sweden's municipalities. Differences in working methods were largely dependent on the extent to which the organization had implemented the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The main difference was that the implementation has led to greater clarity in the work, and that children's rights have received a greater focus. The conclusion showed that the state needs to develop guidelines for how the Convention on the Rights of the Child is to be implemented, and that all municipalities receive equal conditions. The study showed a further need to research what changes the implementation has led to in other areas of social services that are not directly aimed at children.

The child soldier problem is an escalating and growing phenomenon around the world. It is a complex issue as it involves a wide range of areas such as human rights, politics and cultures. A comprehensive legal framework is in place to protect children in armed conflicts, yet they are still being targeted, recruited and deployed in armed groups and organizations. The purpose of this study is to conduct an exhaustive examination of current international law, de lege lata, regarding child soldiers aged 15-18. The legal-dogmatic method will be used to identify the merits, but above all the shortcomings and problems of the legislation. The result shows that international law treats children differently in terms of age and when they are no longer considered child soldiers. The findings demonstrate the difficulties between the two frameworks of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in relation to child rights and protection issues. Furthermore, it has been discovered that the international law regarding child soldiers is outdated, contradictory and inconsistent, as society and warfare have changed since the adoption of the documents. The lack of legal sanctions against recruiters and enablers complicates the situation even further.