Nordic co-operation, recommendations

General measures of implementation

• Adopt a joint declaration reaffirming the shared commitment to protecting children’s rights in exceptional circumstances.
• Develop a Nordic structure and policy for co-operation in crisis. This would enable timely exchange of knowledge, tools, and expertise, supporting the harmonisation of practices between national systems. By building on existing trust and shared values, this framework could improve the Nordic countries’ ability to respond to crises in a coordinated, effective, and child-centred manner.
• Establish a forum for sharing good examples and practices to support benchmarking and create synergies for the political advancement of children’s rights, particularly for children in vulnerable situations.
• Designate a contact point, such as a Nordic Children’s Ombudsperson, to ensure that children can move freely across borders in the Nordic countries, when necessary, for example, when parents or siblings live in another Nordic country, and to support parents working across borders.
• Develop guidelines for creating national and municipal action plans.
• Compare national strategies for handling a crisis – and make corresponding Nordic strategies to bridge actions.
• Share Protocols for Rapid Response Mechanisms.
• Share guidelines and frameworks for crisis preparedness to ensure that children’s perspectives are systematically integrated across the region.
• Promote collaborative research initiatives and policy evaluations to strengthen the evidence base for child-focused crisis responses.
• Harmonise legislation concerning children and parents across the Nordic countries to facilitate cooperation, for example, regarding contact after parental separation.
• Civil society organisations, such as Save the Children and Red Cross, can be valuable partners in supporting children’s participation.d Cross, can be valuable partners in supporting children’s participation

Respect for the views of the child, Article 12

• Develop a shared approach to ensuring that children are meaningfully involved in decisions that directly affect their lives, including through Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) and structures for hearing children.
• Share experiences on how municipalities can fulfil their obligation to involve children and include their views in planning and decision-making.
• Share experiences on how to strengthen children’s opportunities to participate in legislative process.
• Develop and share digital participation methods and continue to innovate in this area.
• Share experiences on legislation, practices, and methods to uphold children’s right to be heard during crises, in order to recommend well-founded practices and methods for the future.
• Engage researchers to explore children’s views. Youth surveys are done in all countries, and there is potential for more Nordic cooperation on research about the implementation of children’s rights through existing Nordic institutions like the Nordic Welfare Centre NordForsk and Nordregio.

The Nordic countries could also co-operate on

• Accurate and accessible information for children (art. 17),
• Mental Health Support (art. 24), and
• Programmes for economic assistance (art. 27 on standard of living).

References