Barns deltagande i familjerättsliga processer

Sammanfattning: The dissertation contains an analysis of children’s right to participate in legal proceedings that concern the child personally in Swedish law and according to the international undertakings that Sweden has accepted, inter alia, by ratification of the UN convention on the rights of the child.In this work, an investigation is made into the application by the district courts of the legislative rules introduced in 1996, which give the child to right to state its view on matters that affect them personally. In the study, proceedings have been examined concerning custody, access, adoption and change of name that have affected almost 2,000 children. The study shows that children have difficulties in making their views heard in the proceedings investigated despite the introduction of the legislation. Three factors were crucial for whether a child was able to state its view, namely the age of the child, the wording of the legislative rule, and the nature of the proceedings. The dissertation contains a discussion on the measures that should be taken to ensure that children are able to exercise the right to express their view that they have according to the family law legislation. The conclusions of the study are that the child’s right to state its view in all proceedings concerning the child needs to be further strengthened in legislation, and that the focus needs to be placed on the need for method development with regard to the reports made by the social welfare committee in the proceedings studied. Legislation also needs to be complemented with a right for the child to obtain information before the child is to state its view and to obtain help in understanding the consequences of different possible decisions.