INTRODUCTION

For many years now, Sweden has been viewed as a country that is heavily committed to the development and protection of children’s rights, so much so that the country is sometimes referred to as one of the best countries in which to be a child. The idea of the child as an autonomous individual with special rights and needs, and the legal and policy reforms that follow from this idea progressively developed in Swedish society, alongside the Swedish welfare state, during the course of the twentieth century. As Sandin points out, children were at the centre of progressive welfare policy, with many of the measures implemented focusing on children and/or the family. Examples of such measures include paid maternity leave, a daycare system catering to the needs of all children, and state protection against abuse, including the 1979 ban on corporal punishment.

Against this background, it is no surprise that Sweden was similarly committed to the development of a treaty on the human rights of children. Sweden played an active part in the draft ing process of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter CRC or ‘the Convention’) and ratified it in 1990. Sweden has also ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. However, it has yet to ratify the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure.

In the decades following the ratification of the CRC, there was a continuing debate about whether Sweden should incorporate the Convention into national law. On 1 January 2020, the treaty was finally incorporated into Swedish law. This chapter aims to provide a background to the Swedish debate on the incorporation of the CRC, an overview of the current legal status of the Convention in Swedish law, and a discussion of the impact that the CRC has had since becoming national law.

COUNTRY OVERVIEW AND CONTEXT

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Sweden has a population of about 10.3 million people, 19.6 per cent of whom were born outside of Sweden. In 2019, there were approximately 2.2 million children (those aged 0–17 years), making up 21.1 per cent of the total population. The age of majority is 18. Children start their ten years of compulsory schooling at the age of six.