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LAPS/80/2024, 22 August 2024

Submissions on the General Comment No. 27 on Children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

The Ombudsman for Children (hereafter the Ombudsman) is an autonomous and independent government authority whose duties are included in the Act on the Ombudsman for Children (1221/2004). The Ombudsman promotes and evaluates the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Finland.

Submissions on the General Comment No. 27

  • The Ombudsman has on several occasions highlighted the importance of children’s access to justice and remedies and therefore welcomes the Committee´s decision to dedicate its 27th General Comment to Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. 
  • From the perspective of children and young people, anticipatory legal protection – preventing violation of rights from happening in the first place – is of utmost importance. However, as it is pointed out in the concept note of the GC 27, effective child-friendly remedies have an important role to play in combating inequalities, challenging discriminatory practices and restoring entitlements that have been denied.
  • Children whom the Ombudsman has met have brought up that problems are sometimes not shared because of the fear of the consequences (eg. bad treatment or loss of rights). This applies to both custodians and children. Children have also pointed out that they are afraid that bringing things up will not help. 
  • In Finland, the legal protection system is very complex and difficult for even an adult to understand. In principle, the means and measures of legal protection included in the national legislation are also available to children, but in practice most of them require active action to be taken by the child’s custodian. The child’s own views can easily be completely overlooked. The processes are long, especially from the time perspective of a child. Means of legal protection do not therefore meet the requirements of child-friendly justice. 
  • On a national level, the Ombudsman has been particularly worried about children’s lack of awareness of available remedies. Children do not have enough information on their rights and ways of notifying others of the infringement of those rights. This applies to pretty much all children's environments in Finland.  
  • Therefore, particular attention should be paid to child rights education that includes information about what to do and who to contact if the rights are violated. 
  • Communication should take place in children´s daily environments such as school and early childhood education and care. Children with special needs should always be given special attention.
  • Children are nowadays exposed to a vast amount of inaccurate or even incorrect information through social media and are therefore in a particularly great need of information from trusted adults.
  • Attention should also be paid to making sure that custodians of children and other people close to children are familiar with the rights of the child and the various means of legal protection available. Year after year, communications received by the Ombudsman for Children indicate that custodians do not have enough information about the means and processes of legal protection available to them.
  • Neither are all professionals working with children sufficiently familiar with children's rights and relevant remedies. Adults working with children can for example have the wrong idea that legal remedies do not apply to children. Human rights training should be included in mandatory studies as well as be provided to those already practising their profession. 
  • Those who work with children do not always give the children information about remedies even if they themselves have the knowledge. Adults can have an attitude that, for example, making a complaint would be pointless as the legal processes are so long. Adults may also protect themselves if the violation of rights concerns their own activity or workplace.
  • A large portion of problems at schools emerge in situations where appealable decisions are not made. In school environment retrospective means of legal protection, such as appeals to the Regional State Administrative Agency, are often too slow. Similar problems occur also, for example, in health care.
  • However, a positive example can be mentioned regarding access to justice in child welfare issues. The Parliamentary Ombudsman's inspection visits to child welfare institutions have increased children's awareness of their rights and legal protection. Complaints can be filed through the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website for children. The number of complaints filed by children in matters involving foster care has increased dramatically. Investigations have revealed illegalities in most of them – children do not file complaints for nothing.

Elina Pekkarinen, Ombudsman for Children in Finland

Reetta Peltonen, lawyer