Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i3.970
Exports for your reference manager
Voice or coice-over? Harnessing the relationship between a child's right to be heard and legal agency through Norwegian bullying cases
[journal article]
Abstract This article offers an analysis of the child's right to be heard under Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its application in Norway, through a case study of bullying. The methodology combines a "top-down" legal interpretation of Article 12 in addition to an analysis of Secti... view more
This article offers an analysis of the child's right to be heard under Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its application in Norway, through a case study of bullying. The methodology combines a "top-down" legal interpretation of Article 12 in addition to an analysis of Section 9a of the Education Act, juxtaposed with bottom-up approaches. First, a legal analysis of Article 12 and the General Comments of the Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee is provided, with a view to demonstrating the strength of the connection between agency and voice. Looking from the bottom up, therefore, the article then pursues the voices of the bullied children themselves. It places its ear to the ground, so to speak, through an examination of complaints submitted by children to the Ombudsman for Children, in order to "hear" the voices of children subjected to bullying at school, before they are formulated in legal terms before judicial bodies. Finally, I offer a close reading of the report on Section 9a commissioned by the Norwegian Government, published in a 2015 Report (the "Djupedal Report") in tandem with the leading Supreme Court 2012 decision on bullying, so as to critically examine the fulfilment of Article 12 in Norway. In the final analysis, I argue that in Norwegian bullying cases, though the child has the legal right to be heard, there is no voice, due to the limitations of legal agency for children pursuant to Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.... view less
Keywords
children's rights; mobbing; Norway; child; law; court hearing
Classification
Criminal Sociology, Sociology of Law
Sociology of the Youth, Sociology of Childhood
Law
Free Keywords
Ombudsmann
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 131-147
Journal
Social Inclusion, 5 (2017) 3
Issue topic
Promoting children's participation in research, policy and practice
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed