Children’s rights organizations in Sweden and their relation to public child welfare

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a mapping of the Swedish children’s rights organizations (SCROs) and an analysis of how these organizations relate to public child welfare. SCROs represent a children’s rights discourse and are active as voice and service producers in the field of social work with vulnerable children. It can be presumed that SCROs affect public child welfare and by extension vulnerable children in need of support. This warrants a mapping of the SCROs and an examination of their organizational and professional space in regard to public child welfare. In total, 22 SCROs were found through internet searches (keywords e.g. ‘children’s rights’, ‘organization’, ‘association’ and ‘commitment’) and categorized based on a qualitative content analysis of the organizations’ websites. Seven SCROs operating on a domestic level are analysed in regard to their provided voice and service efforts. The findings suggest that there has been a growth in the number and activities of SCROs. Based on critical children’s rights studies and the concept of child rights governance, the ideological shift from child protection to children’s rights among these organizations is discussed. The rhetoric of SCROs implies a positioning of public child welfare as an ultimate duty bearer, while the organizations take on an expert role. Furthermore, SCROs appear to assume the role of child rights advocates. From a critical perspective, the children’s rights discourse brought forward by SCROs involves a juridification that risks to polarize the relation between children and public child welfare as well as undermining the legitimacy of public child welfare.