Recommendations

Main recommendations (specified below)

• Establish and maintain permanent, inclusive structures for children’s participation at all levels of governance, and use them in times of crisis.
• Provide timely, age-appropriate and accessible information to children in relevant languages and formats, including during crises.
• Provide targeted support to children at risk of being marginalised, including those facing poverty, disability, or social exclusion, to facilitate their participation.
• Ensure systematic training for all relevant professionals working with children, in children’s rights, and meaningful participation.
• Undertake systematic Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) before measures are adopted and executed, including in times of crisis.
• Ensure children’s right to health, survival, and development by safeguarding school health services and mental health support to children.
• Ensure children’s right to leisure activities and education, even in times of crisis.

General measures of implementation

Legislation

• A child rights approach should be integrated in all legislation, policies, and guidelines related to crisis preparedness and response.
• Countries should have crisis management legislation in place, developed, and adopted in normal times (non-crisis) to ensure readiness.
• Children’s participation and best interests should be explicitly mentioned.  

Comprehensive policy and action plans

• Countries should have in place a national, coordinated policy with clear structures and action plans for crisis management.
• The policy should include a specific focus on children, grounded in their rights as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• There should be a comprehensive national action plan on how to safeguard children’s rights in crisis situations – a dedicated crisis management plan for children. This plan should cover key rights, including children’s right to participation, education, health, and protection.
• The plan should have a child rights approach. It should
  • be based on views from and knowledge about children,
  • specify how and when children are to be included in crisis-related decision-making, and
  • specify how to discover and follow up children at risk when the normal safety net is suspended or weakened.
  • set up clear, measurable goals and actions to achieve the goals and
  • have a clear division of responsibility across relevant sectors and government levels.
• All municipalities should have similar action plans. National guidelines should exist for these plans.
• Protocols for Rapid Response Mechanisms should include a child rights perspective.

Coordination

• Well-functioning, high-level cooperation bodies should exist in normal times and should be activated during crisis management to ensure effective cross-sectoral coordination.
• The ministry responsible for children’s rights should be formally represented in the national crisis management body.
• The children’s ombudspersons should serve as advisors to the crisis management body from the outset of any emergency. This role is complementary to the direct participation of children themselves (see section on participation).

Good practices

Iceland

Norway

• The Ombudsperson believes KUBU has the potential to significantly impact how the state addresses issues and measures affecting children and young people.
• KUBU consists of the top administrative heads of 8 ministries and the directors of relevant directorates (government agencies), in total 13 different government bodies. 
• KUBU receives shared mandates from its responsible ministries (The Core Group of Ministries).
• KUBU focuses on cross-sectoral challenges such as juvenile justice and effective preventative work.

Data collection

• Governments should initiate a comprehensive review of how children and young people have been affected by the pandemic, based on a synthesis of studies, evaluations, and research. The review should
  • identify what children need now and what will be important in the next crisis and
  • give the voices of children and young people strong weight, ensuring that their lived experiences inform future planning and policy.

Good practices

Iceland

Co-operation with civil society

• States should actively consult civil society in the development of child-focused national crisis plans and ensure their involvement in the implementation of these plans.
• Civil society organisations should be recognised as key first responders in crisis and their role be formalised through legislation.

Good practices

Denmark

Sweden

Access to justice

• Countries should ensure that all children have access to confidential, child-friendly, and independent complaint mechanisms (General comment No. 14, para. 15 (c), General comment No. 27 on children’s access to justice (expected 2027).

Non-discrimination (Article 2)

• Identify and provide targeted support to groups of children who are especially at risk of being affected during crisis, such as children in economically or socially vulnerable situations or children with disabilities (see General comment No. 5, para. 12).
• The individuality and diversity of children should be taken into account in the countries’ use of Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA), to facilitate specific measures tailored to the needs of vulnerable groups and young children.

Best interests of the child (Article 3 no. 1)

• States should include in all relevant legislation a provision stating that the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration (General comment No. 14, para. 15 (a), 31).
• Legislation should also include clear criteria for how the best interests of the child are to be assessed.
• Systematic Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) should be carried out before measures are adopted and executed, including during times of crisis (General comment No. 14, para. 35).
• This requirement should be reflected in the government regulation or guidelines for impact assessments to be undertaken in the preparations for legislation, budgets, plans, etc.
• Assessments of the challenges children face today, and in the future, should take into account that they have lived through two years of sustained pandemic and that this may have lasting effects on their needs and development.

Good practices

Norway

Sweden

Åland

Right to development (art. 6)

• For children’s right to development to be realised, it is vital that countries ensure children’s right to participation, as ‘child participation is a tool to stimulate the full development of the personality and the evolving capacities of the child’ (General comment No. 12, para. 79).
  

Respect for the views of the child (art. 12)

General

• States should ensure that children and youth are involved in the development, implementation, and monitoring of all relevant legislation, policies, services, and programmes affecting their lives, at school and at the community, local, national, and international levels (General comment No. 20, para. 23, regarding adolescents). Participation requires Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence. 

Legislation

• Children’s right to participate should be clearly embedded in legislation.

Structures for participation

• Permanent, sustainable structures for hearing children and including their views in decision-making should be established and maintained in normal times (General comment No. 12, para. 19; General comment No. 26, para. 27; Tisdall and Morrison, 2025, 5.4).
• This applies to both individual children and groups of children
• Existing participatory structures must be upheld and used in times of crisis (General comment No. 12, para. 125, General comment No. 20, para. 79–80).
• All processes in which a child or children are heard and participate, should fulfil the requirements set out in General comment No. 12, para. 134 (a)–(i).
• Structures must be inclusive and accessible, accommodating children with special needs and younger children (General comment No. 12, paras. 75–78, General comment No. 7, para. 14).
• Mechanisms for involving children in decision-making should exist at all levels – nationally, regionally, and locally – and at all stages of the process, from planning to implementation and evaluation.
• Municipalities should have structures for involving children and including their views in planning and decision-making.
• Youth councils should be established in all municipalities, preferably as a legal requirement.
• Schools should serve as democratic arenas for developing students’ critical thinking, collaboration and leadership skills, and local-level participation (General comment No. 20, para. 72).
• Student councils should represent the diversity of students and be actively involved in decision-making on issues of their own choice, including during emergencies, with adult support and guidance.
• Countries should consider establishing a Youth Crisis Response Team, with young people represented among adults, to ensure that young people are actively involved in crisis preparedness, response, and recovery, with real influence in decision-making processes (see the Youth chapter).
• Participatory structures should be regularly reviewed and evaluated to determine whether they function effectively in times of crisis, and children should be involved in this.
• The obligation to ensure children’s participation should be embedded in mission documents, assignment letters, and mandates, to ensure that ministries, government agencies, and directorates comply.

Children in vulnerable situations

• Countries should identify and provide targeted support to groups of children at risk of not being heard, such as children living in poor families, children from minority backgrounds, and others in vulnerable situations.
• Children with special needs should receive adequate support to enable their participation, whether in person or digitally (General comment No. 9 (2006), para. 33, General comment No. 12, para. 134 (e), General comment No. 25, paras 9–11).
• Digital alternatives may be helpful, both at the individual and group level, particularly as a way to compensate for not participating in youth councils or similar forums.
• Young children should receive the necessary support to participate. Kindergartens should involve children to empower them and help them develop participating skills.
• Countries should support key actors who are important in enabling children’s participation, including children with special needs.

Good practices

Åland

Methodology

• A variety of methods for facilitating children’s participation should be gathered at national and Nordic level and made available to authorities at all levels.
• Digital methods of participation should be established to ensure broad and inclusive participation (see General comment No. 25, paras 16–18). Such methods should be used where in-person meetings are not possible, or as a complement to physical meetings.
• Each country should consider establishing a national resource centre for child participation, to gather and develop methodology, provide training, and give support and advice to authorities at all levels. A Nordic institution could be given a coordination role, for instance NORDBUK.

Good practices

Finland

Finland

• Young advisers’ model. Regular discussions with different groups of children representing the lives and everyday realities of children, 6–10 meetings annually
• Child barometer. A telephone survey every two years on the lives and everyday realities of children aged 6–7, aiming to examine children’s own views on themes that concern them.
• Creative studies of children’s views, for example a study in which third-graders drew, painted, and wrote about their coronavirus experiences. The publication showed that it only takes minor arrangements to collect information on the views of even a large group of children and that it is important to offer children several alternative ways of expressing themselves, their own experiences, and thought.

Finland (and Åland exploring)

Norway

Åland

Feedback to children

• Countries should ensure that decision-makers inform the children of the outcome of the process and explain how their views were considered. The feedback is a guarantee that children’s views are heard not only as a formality, but are taken seriously (General comment No. 12, para. 45).

Training

• Countries should ensure that professionals working with and for children receive training on a regular basis on how to talk to children, listen to them, take their views into account, and provide feedback after decisions are made (General comment No. 12, para. 134 (g)).

Good practices

Denmark

Norway

Empowering youth

• Youth should be seen as a resource not only in crises but also in everyday governance and planning (General comment No. 20, para. 2–4, 23). Regular involvement empowers children and youth and is a means of political and civil engagement (General comment No. 20, para. 24), fostering readiness and confidence to contribute during emergencies.
• Voluntary work involving young people and senior citizens could be organised in a systematic way outside of crisis situations, to help youth build agency and a sense of contribution and belonging to the society.
• Communities could engage young people in voluntary work (inspired by World War 2) as part of society’s response to crises, by youth supporting youth, young people visiting elderly people, or contributing in other ways.

Right to information, Articles 12 and 17

• When children are invited to express their views, they must be provided with clear, accessible, and relevant information about the issue at hand, the broader context, options, and possible decisions to be taken and their consequences (General comment No. 12, para. 25).
• The information must be timely, age-appropriate, and adapted to children’s varying needs.
• In times of crisis, there should be information and communication specifically aimed at children and young people, as well as their families and caregivers (General comment No. 26, para. 34, in the context of climate change-related disasters).
• Information should be presented through channels that children use, such as digital platforms (General comment No. 20, paras. 47–48, General comment No. 25, paras 50–53) and other relevant media.
• Information should be available in multiple languages to ensure that every child has access to information in their own language. This includes Sami, which is recognised as both an Indigenous and a national minority language in the Nordic region.
• In times of no crisis, information about crisis preparedness should also be made available to children in a child-friendly format.

Good practices

Websites

National information campaigns

Television Channels

Press conferences for children and young people

Right to health, Article 24

• School health services should be safeguarded during crises. School health nurses should not be reassigned to other duties. If children are not physically present at school, the nurse and other services should remain accessible in alternative ways.
• Mental health and psychosocial support services should be easily accessible for children in times of crisis.
• In implementing measures such as testing and vaccination, special attention should be paid to children.

Good practices

Greenland

Iceland

Åland

Right to education, Article 28 and 29

• States should develop national digital education platforms to ensure continuity of learning during emergencies and for children otherwise unable to attend school in person.

Right to leisure activities, Article 31

• Countries should ensure children’s access to leisure activities even in times of crisis.
• If restrictions must be imposed, they should be adapted to children’s situation with the aim of keeping activities open as far as possible.
• National and local authorities should involve civil society organisations and children in decision-making in this regard.
• Countries should ensure that children are provided with information about alternative ways of engaging in activities together with their peers.