Den första paragrafen i artikel 3 och i artikel 12 i lag (2018:1197) om Förenta nationernas konvention om barnets rättigheter, betonar vikten av barnets bästa och barnets delaktighet. Denna studie syftar till att förstå hur dessa aspekter beaktas i domstol av de involverade parterna i processen enligt lag (1990:52) med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga under åren 2022 och 2023. För att genomföra studien begärdes fem rättsfall ut från en av fyra kammarrätter i Sverige. Utifrån bakgrund, teori och tidigare forskning analyseras rättsfallen med hjälp av kritisk diskursanalys. Resultatet visar att barnets bästa resoneras olika beroende på part, samt att parter med störst auktoritet såsom yrkesverksammas uttalanden ges större beaktning vid domslut. Vårdnadshavare ifrågasätts ofta angående deras omsorgsförmåga. Vårdnadshavarnas uttalanden kring barnets bästa är ofta ett tecken på bristande insikt i omsorgsförmågan enligt de professionella i yrkesverksamma. Barnets delaktighet framhävs inte på samma vis som barnets bästa i rättsfallen. / The first paragraph in the third article and in article 12 of  Convention on the Rights of the Child (2018:1197), the significance of prioritizing the best interests of the child and their participation is emphasized. This study aimed to understand how these two aspects are considered in court by the various parties involved in the process of Swedish Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act (SFS 1990:52) (LVU) during year 2022 and 2023. To conduct this study we requested 5 court judgements from one of the four administrative courts in Sweden. Based on the background and previous research we analyzed the cases using critical discourse analysis. It shows that the best interest of the child can be motivated differently depending on parties, in these court judgments the parties with most authority as professionals are given greater consideration in court. The caregivers often are questioned regarding their ability to provide care for the child. Their opinion on the best interest of the child, which in most cases is to live in the caregivers home, according to professionals, is a sign of lack of insight into their caregiving. Children participation on the other hand, which also is a part of reaching the best interest of the child  (Prop:2017/18:186), was not always given the same extent.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to investigate the empowering and limiting factors that social workers are subjected to when they are to involve children in child welfare investigations. The empirical collection for the bachelor thesis is based on qualitative data collected by interviewing five social workers working mainly within the children- and family units and a sample of 17 scientific articles. The articles are international with origins from England, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Taiwan. When the empirical collection was compiled we could establish that the term “children’s participation” is in fact a complex field to put into practice by the social workers. Even if the children in some cases showed willingness to participate this could be limited by the social workers' fear to overburden them. Among other factors that limited the children’s participation was the social workers’ ambiguous view on children’s participation, the high workload, the caretakers influence on children’s participation, the child’s age and maturity as well as the social worker’s lack of competence and communication skills. Through the collection of former research, interviewing material, and Harry Shier’s Pathway to Participation model (2001) we could analyze how children’s participation is shaped by forming a thematic analysis. Finally, we can note that the reached stage of participation is relatively limited and does not reach a higher stage than stage two in Shier’s Pathway to Participation model (2001). Due to our limited possibility to conduct more interviews we couldn’t draw any general conclusions. However, we were able to shine a light on the critical and challenging aspects social workers could face when trying to enable child participation.

Barn enligt Barnkonventionen ska ges förutsättningar till att uttrycka sina åsikter i frågor som rör dem. Trots detta lyfts i tidigare forskning, samt av flertalet myndigheter, brister kring hur barn i praktiken görs delaktiga i barnavårdsutredningar. Syftet med studien är att undersöka socialsekreterares upplevelser och erfarenheter av hur de med stöd av arbetsmetoden Signs of Safety involverar barn i utredningar. Utifrån en kvalitativ ansats genomfördes sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare i socialtjänsten som arbetar med barnavårdsutredningar utifrån Signs of Safety. Genom en tematisk analys framkom det att socialsekreterare kan identifiera en del hinder och svårigheter med delar av Signs of Safety men att de i hög grad anser att Signs of Safety stöttar dem till att involvera barn i utredningar. / According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children shall be provided the opportunity to express their views in all matters that affect them. Despite this, research and several public authorities highlight several shortcomings concerning the participation of children in child welfare practice. The purpose of the study is to investigate social workers' experiences with involving children when using the Signs of Safety working method. The study is based on a qualitative approach and seven semi-structured interviews with social workers in social services who work with child welfare assessments based on Signs of Safety. A thematic analysis indicated that social workers could identify some obstacles and difficulties with parts of Signs of Safety. However, they largely believe that Signs of Safety supports them to involve children.

In this minor field study, we have employed a qualitative methodology to examine the role of  the non-governmental organisation Wale Wale in the operationalisation of supranational mandates to improve the rights and experiences of children in Kenya through participatory activities. In doing so, this study is able to combine the literature on Sense of Place and The Right to The City with Critical Development in novel ways. This has allowed us to examine the chasm between supranational and national mandates and local articulations using an interesting case study. Indeed, Wale Wale  demonstrates the difficulty of (i) implementing analogous supranational legislation, such as the Convention of The Rights of The Child (CRC), without practical or legally binding frameworks; (ii) that reactionary government frameworks are ineffective  in implementing supranational policy at the local scale when compared with proactive non-governmental organisations; (iii) that participatory democracy introduced in childhood has played a fundamental role in the empowerment of local residents in reclaiming space in the city and that (iv) understanding this case study is impossible without uniting the disparate literatures on Sense of Place and The Right to The City in understanding the role of local organisations in Critical Development Studies.

The aim of this study was to increase understanding of the extent to which the child's will is given in Swedish courts' overall assessments of the best interests of the child in disputes on custody, resident and visitation (VBU). 18 District Court judgments have been collected from the database Zeteo via court judgments from Sweden's six Courts of Appeal. Based on a qualitative research effort, a content analysis was conducted on the judgments. The content analysis resulted in the following three categories being identified: The court judges according to the expressed will of the child, The court judges against the expressed will of the child, and The will of the child was omitted in the district court's assessment. The results were mainly analyzed based on childhood sociological perspectives, Hart’s ladder of participation and family law regulations. The theoretical framework was used to illustrate how the child was presented and socially constructed, and what impact this had on the space the child's will was given in the court's assessments of the best interests of the child. This was then reflected in the prevailing laws. The results of the study showed that the child's will appeared in about half of the cases, and that the court judged according to the will of the child in less than one third of them. The study also showed that the court tended to question the authenticity of the will of the children whose wishes did not comply with what the court considered to be the best interests of the child. In the majority of the cases where the children’s will were not given any room in the judgment, the court generally gave no reasons why the will was not reported.

This thesis explores the scope for children’s voices offered to children in court mandated investigations regarding custody, residence or contact. The focus is on children who have been exposed to their father’s violence against their mother The aim is to study how the legislators’ intentions concerning children’s participation in this area are implemented in work groups. The assumption is that implementation can be seen as collective learning. Implementation may in this case challenge established relations of power like age and gender orders. Professional discourses on violence have to shift from gender neutral to gendered discourses and discourses on children have to include a participation discourse. Learning which includes a shift in discourses and challenges established power relations is defined as radical learning.The approach is social constructionist and draws on group interviews with social workers specialized in family law.The thesis analyses which discourses of violence and of children are accessible and used at group level. This can be seen as a discursive opportunity structure. The discourses in question are: gender violence, child protection, treatment and family law discourses as well as care and participation discourses. The conclusion is that all these discourses are accessible to the professionals and the effects of the different discourses are discussed regarding the possibilities for creating a safe situation for mother and child during the investigation.The thesis furthermore analyses the organisation of the work groups. These characteristics can be seen as an organisational opportunity structure. The analysis shows different patterns in the groups when it comes to structure and stage of learning process. One group seems to be at the stage where the members are prepared to start talking to the child about the father’s violence.The final chapter presents a discussion of radical learning and the possibilities for radical social change when established power relations are challenged.

The aim of this study was to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of how staff in non-profit women shelters meet children's needs and rights in safe houses for women, and how staff in safe houses for women relate to children's participation. The study was based on a qualitative method where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff in non-profit women shelters across Sweden. The empirical data has been analyzed based on previous research and the theoretical framework: sociology of childhood and the ladder of participation. The results show that the staff try to maintain the children's everyday life by creating routines for the children with school and activities. At the same time, it appears that there are difficulties to maintain children's everyday life because of the safety strategies that the safe houses for women have. The staff describe that they try to involve the children in the safe house for women, we have however discovered that the participation does not exceed the fifth step of the ladder of participation. In conclusion the children receive support in the safe house for women, in form of support talk. But because the children are accompanying their mother, it creates an inequality between the different women shelters. Where everyday life and support for the children differs around different women shelters in Sweden.

Denna studie handlar om hur alla barn kan få möjlighet att göras delaktiga i förskolans verksamhet via olika kommunikationsformer. I studien undersöks vilka arbetssätt och tecken som förskollärare använder i tydliggörandet av barns kommunikation. Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om pedagogiska arbetssätt som kan bli tydliggörande för barns kommunikation i förskolan. Empirin har samlats in genom en kvalitativ metod, med semistrukturerade intervjuer där sex förskollärare från fem olika förskolor medverkade. Resultatet har sedan analyserats utifrån ett multimodalt och designorienterat perspektiv. I resultatet framkommer det att förskollärare använder sig utav arbetssättet tydliggörande pedagogik, med tecken som det verbala språket, TAKK, bilder och digitala verktyg i tydliggörandet av barns kommunikation.

Den här dokumentstudien har en kvalitativ ansats och ämnar analysera förarbeten till lagen om barnfridsbrott. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur barns rätt till skydd samt barns aktörskap, i relation till barnkonventionens artikel 19 och 12, hanteras i förarbetena. Studien lyfter även den spänning som tidigare forskning visat finns mellan olika artiklar i barnkonventionen och i barns ökade autonomi kontra deras behov av samhällets skydd. Teorier om medborgarskap och barns medborgarskap används för att synliggöra och förklara barns ställning i samhället och det som händer med deras position när lagar verkar för en ökad ställning. Teori om barn som aktörer har använts som teoretisk utgångspunkt för att ge en förklaring till hur synen på barn i en svensk kontext har förändrats över tid, där individen nu fått en starkare ställning. De valda teorierna har även gett möjlighet att förklara hur lagen vi studerat förarbetena till kommer att verka i förhållande till barns delaktighet och ansvar.Metoden som använts är en innehållsanalys av regeringens proposition Barn som bevittnar brott (Justitiedepartementet 2021a) samt Statens offentliga utredning Straffrättsligt skydd för barn som bevittnar brott mellan närstående samt mot uppmaning och annan psykisk påverkan att begå självmord (Utredningen om skydd för barn som bevittnar våld eller andra brottsliga handlingar och ansvar för uppmaning att begå självmord 2019). Resultatet visar att när barnet får en ökad rättslig ställning som målsägande tenderar det att försvaga skyddet. Barn kommer bland annat behöva medverka i en rättsprocess mot en närstående, vilket kan vara riskfyllt för barnet utifrån flera synvinklar. Spänningen mellan barns rätt till skydd och barns aktörskap existerar och behöver tas hänsyn till när lagar inom området skrivs fram, vilket det material som analyserats i studien inte gjort.

In 2020, approximately 6900 children in Sweden were relevant for investigation of custody disputes. During the same year, 1802 court decisions were enforced regarding supervision by a contact person. Previous research has shown that children often have a lack of participation and opportunity to influence in these cases. It has also shown that parental rights and the child´s need for protection often outweigh the child´s expressed will. The aim of this study was to investigate children´s participation in the district court´s judgments regarding supervision by a contact person. What an impact the child´s will have and how factors such as age, risks and their best interest affect children´s ability to be involved. Through a qualitative content analysis, nine judgments from various district courts in Sweden during 2018-2021 have been selected. The material was then analyzed with the help of social constructivist theory and Roger Hart´s ladder of participation. The study shows that in six out of nine judgments, children are involved based on different levels and that 44% of the judgments are in accordance with the child´s expressed will. However, it has been difficult to read out how the child´s will has actually had a bearing on the verdict. The result also shows that factors such as age, risks and the best interests of the child affects the child´s ability to participate. In cases where the district court has not reported the child´s will or participation, no explanation or clarification is given as to why it is so.