This thesis that is supported by the research findings is as follows: In private law contact disputes between parents, greater weight should be attached to the statutory requirement to give children an opportunity to express their views, as well as to the statutory requirement to protect them from abuse, rather than assuming on-going contact with a both parents is essential for the promotion of a child’s welfare. Despite the acquisition of rights by women and children since the late 19th century, it is argued, they remain disempowered within private law legal process as the patria potestas (paternal power) once held by married fathers, has evolved into this assumption that a child’s welfare requires direct, regular contact with his or her biological father – whether the child wants this or not. Consequently, where children’s views are taken, but they express a view contrary to on-going contact with their biological father, their wishes are often overridden and they may be forced by the court into contact arrangements that distress them. This is particularly problematic as the majority of cases coming before the courts involve serious welfare concerns (including domestic violence and the abuse of substances) and children often have lucid reasons for not wishing to be left under the care and control of their non-resident parent. Yet, these children may sometimes be further victimised by the court system charged with their protection.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), little is known about Saudi educational researchers' perspectives concerning the issue of ethics when recruiting children to participate in research. It has come to light that researchers use children to collect their data from but do not give them the opportunity to express their wishes regarding participation in that research, and no ethical consent form is specifically required for children's use unless the topic of research is sensitive. Accordingly, in the context of KSA, this research aims at identifying and exploring educational researchers' perspectives about children's rights when conducting research with children. This research used two methods: Q-methodology and interview. Q-methodology was used to determine the viewpoints of educational researchers working in education departments at two universities in Riyadh city in the KSA (King Saud University and Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University). Fifty-two (52) female educational researchers sorted 54 Q-methodology statements, according to personal opinion, ranging from (+5) most agree to (-5) most disagree, while the interviews were conducted with three policymakers from the National Commission for Childhood and the Ministry of Education. Following analysis of the data, a number of findings were identified from the Q analysis, five factors, and the interview analysis: the need for more childhood and children's rights studies; the challenges facing researchers when including children as research participants; the weak belief pertaining to children's capabilities; the low level of awareness of children's participation rights and how the ethics process is in the KSA. These findings illustrate the acceptance of ethics as a process in research. Finally, the effectiveness of using Q-methodology as an approach was confirmed. This research is in a position to inform the Saudi research community and policymakers about current understandings and practices in terms of children's participation in research. The viewpoints that emerged strongly indicate agreement with the concept of ethics when children participate in research. Educational researchers call for ethics guidelines and for them to be compulsory in the KSA and, more significantly, policymakers support their demand.

Maternal mortality in Kyrgyzstan is a discrimination of women not only based on sex, but also on rural/urban setting. Rural women are most likely to die of haemorrhage than urban women in Kyrgyzstan. Postpartum haemorrhage constitutes 45 per cent of all maternal deaths in Kyrgyzstan. This work concentrates on the obligations of Kyrgyzstan under articles 12 and 14.b of the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The work analyses the nature and scope of state obligations under respective articles. Kyrgyzstan has obligations to respect, protect and fulfill rural women’s human rights to address discriminations against rural women, provide appropriate health services and ensure availability and accessibility of misoprostol to rural women. Misoprostol is more suitable to the conditions of rural area than traditionally used oxytocin. Therefore, the availability and accessibility of rural women to misoprostol will prevent avoidable maternal deaths in haemorrhage.

Maternal mortality in Kyrgyzstan is a discrimination of women not only based on sex, but also on rural/urban setting. Rural women are most likely to die of haemorrhage than urban women in Kyrgyzstan. Postpartum haemorrhage constitutes 45 per cent of all maternal deaths in Kyrgyzstan. This work concentrates on the obligations of Kyrgyzstan under articles 12 and 14.b of the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The work analyses the nature and scope of state obligations under respective articles. Kyrgyzstan has obligations to respect, protect and fulfill rural women’s human rights to address discriminations against rural women, provide appropriate health services and ensure availability and accessibility of misoprostol to rural women. Misoprostol is more suitable to the conditions of rural area than traditionally used oxytocin. Therefore, the availability and accessibility of rural women to misoprostol will prevent avoidable maternal deaths in haemorrhage.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur barnkonventionens artikel 12, barns rätt att komma till tals tillämpas i familjebehandling genom att göra en pilotstudie. Familjebehandlare inom kommunens öppenvård fick svara på hur de gjorde barn delaktiga, på vilket sätt barn kom till tals och ifall det fanns tillfällen när barn inte skulle delta i familjebehandlingen. För att få svar på dessa frågor gjordes en semistrukturerad telefonintervju. Den valda teorin var systemteori.  Studien innefattade även familjebehandling, barnkonventionen och BBIC. Resultatet visade att familjebehandlarna använde olika arbetsmetoder för att få barn att komma till tals. Det fanns en stor flexibilitet kring metoderna att göra barn delaktiga och kring att skapa möjlighet för att få barn att prata. Det fanns tillfällen då barn inte skulle delta i familjebehandlingen till exempel när föräldrarna hade egna svårigheter och när det är fanns övervägande vuxenproblem. / The purpose of the study was to investigate if the article 12 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child to be heard is applied in family treatment by making a pilot study. Family practitioners within the municipal outpatients care had to answer how they did involve the children, the manner in which children were heard and if there were times when children should not be participate in family treatment. To get answers to these questions a semi-structured survey was made. The selected theory was systems theory.  The study also included the Convention of the Rights of the Child, family treatment and BBIC. The results showed that family practitioners used various methods to get children to be heard. There was a lot of flexibility around these practices making children involved and creating the opportunity to get children to talk. There were times when children should not participate in family therapy for example when parents had their own difficulties and when it was a predominantly adult problem.

This study aims to describe and analyse the ideas behind and the function of the NGO Maskrosbarn’s advocate services for children (barnombud) during child welfare investigations. The main focus is the advocate services relation to children’s participation. The study has a qualitative case-study approach and contains documents from the local authorities and interviews with eight representatives in six different positions such as child advocates, youth and social workers. An analysis has been made using Shier’ (2001) and Hart’s (1992) theories of child participation and theories about human service organisations (Hasenfeldt, 1983), the New Institutional Theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) and the street-level bureaucrat theory (Lipsky, 1980). One main obstacle for child participation in child welfare investigation, shown in the study, is organisational conditions and social workers’ position in public authority. By creating a relationship built on trust, the child advocate supports the child in the investigation process and has the ability to increase the child’s participation and thereby overcome the gap between the social worker and the child. This study highlights the importance of an active cooperation between the child advocate services and the social services, and also of a shared view on the meaning of participation.

When young people are placed in residential care, the staff have a responsibility to ensure that the youth have a safe environment where they can thrive and develop. Residential staff also have responsibilities to ensure the rights of youth during the residential care. This study aims to examine how staff consider themselves to treat the youth in residential care. Furthermore the study aims to examine how the staff consider themselves to ensure youth their right to be heard and have an impact on their own lives, in agreement with Article 12 of the UN convention on the rights of the child (CRC). A qualitative method has been used in order to answer the study's purpose and issues. Five interviews were conducted with residential staff, four of which were environmental therapists and one who was a manager. The results show that the staff consider themselves to respond well to the youth, however, a good treatment is difficult to define and therefore hard to achieve. Furthermore, it appears that the knowledge about children’s rights varies among the staff, which can have negative effects on how they manage to reassure youth their rights to be heard and have an impact on their own lives, in agreement with Article 12 of the CRC.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att utifrån socialsekreterares upplevelser och erfarenheter få en fördjupad förståelse för vad som påverkar delaktighet för barn som ska placeras i eller redan är placerade i familjehem. Studien har genomförts utifrån sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare i Kalmar län. Analysen har gjorts utifrån ett maktperspektiv samt begreppen being och becoming. Resultatet av vår studie visar att barnens delaktighet i mångt och mycket ligger i socialsekreterarnas händer. Socialsekreterarna kan genom sin makt påverka i vilken utsträckning barnen kan vara delaktiga. Det handlar också om deras sätt att se på barnen som being eller becoming; som kompetenta aktörer eller barn i behov av skydd. / The aim of this study has been to get an in-depth understanding of what affects children's participation for those about to be placed in, or already placed in care, from social workers point of view and experiences. The study has been made through six semi-structured interviews with social workers in Kalmar county. The analysis has been made from a power perspective and by using the concepts of being and becoming. Our result show that children's participation in many ways lays in the hands of the social workers. They can trough their authority influence in which extend the children can be participants. It also lays within the social workers way of seeing the children as being or becomings; as qualified actors or children in need of protection.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how the Convention on the Rights of the Child [CRC] as a new law is perceived in financial aid. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine how the employees in financial aid perceive their work with the participation of children since the CRC became law. The study has all throughout been analysed with the perspective of social constructivism.   Six social workers with different roles in financial aid were interviewed. The gathered material was then analysed with content analysis. Through the content analysis, three categories developed: how “participation” is constructed; the construction of the perspective of the child and “the best interest of the child”; perception of the implementation process of article 12. The material was then analysed with the perspective of social constructivism and with the Lundy model. The results indicate that the social workers find it hard to implement article 12 in financial aid. The social workers also seem to have different constructions for the word “participation”.

The aim of this study is to examine how social workers within the child protective services define children’s participation and what the strategies are to achieve it. Our method was to interview six social workers about their experiences of their pursuit to make children participate during a child protection investigation. The theoretical framework we used to analyze our results was Shier’s pathways to participation. This model is based on five levels of participation, which has different degrees of participation for children. The main finding of this study was that the social workers define children participation as that they should be listen to, be informed and have the ability to choose in what way they participate. Furthermore, we can see from the social workers descriptions about their strategies and the structure of the organisation that they live up to parts of Shier’s criterias for level one, two and tree. Our results both confirm and contrast international and national studies in this field of research.