In August 2018, the 10th NASPCAN conference took place in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. During the conference, practitioners, researchers, NGOs and decision-makers from the Nordic countries gathered in the Faroe Islands to take part in the Nordic Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NASPCAN) conference under the theme “In The Best Interest of the Child: Rhetoric or Reality?”. The conference was the 10th Nordic biennial organised by the association as a platform for collaboration and exchange of knowledge and experiences among professionals in the field.
The association’s activities are based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In order to set the tone and to prepare the conference, the local organising committee planned to put the view of the “research subjects,” the children, in focus. Usually, the researchers define what they think are the most important topics. Here, on the Faroe Islands, they wanted the attendees to hear the voices of the children.
The idea was to demonstrate both aspects of the conference’s topic: “In The Best Interest of the Child: Rhetoric or Reality?” A brilliant idea was materialized by shooting 7 videos that presented children’s and young people’s position on different questions – each matching one of the keynote presentations of the conference. We were delighted to have the chance to sit down and discuss the background of these impactful, touching and adorable videos with Tóra Petersen, chair of the scientific committee and Phd psychologist, and Djóni Eidesgaard, conference chair and director of Barnabati – a local NGO for children’s rights.
Tóra and Djóni explained: “We felt that we don’t really know what is the children’s own reality – do we really understand the way they see the world and what they wish to become better in their own surroundings?
How do we integrate the children and their views in the conference – are they just “used” as a decoration or a generic heart-warmer? Is it enough to show how cute a group of children look when they sing, dance or perform something? Or do we take them seriously and at eye-level and look at the subject of the conference by really hearing their position?
If we want to protect the best interest of the child, how can we do that without hearing them? We tend to look at this by setting “artificial” age limits – before they turn 18 they have nothing to say, but as soon as they become of age their voice counts, and we want them to be responsible citizens of a democratic society.
Do we ever show the child’s perspective in the media and ask, “what is on their mind?”
The results of these thoughts are very well presented in the different videos – they can actually change your view on children and their way of looking at things!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpMxr34S8gHSA5hC2AdDC-A
Nordic Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect http://www.nfbo.org/
Abstracts of the 2018 conference: http://www.nfbo.org/abstracts-nfbo-conference-2018/
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The way we protect the children’s rights must be expanded towards a holistic and differentiated approach, for a better handling of child neglect and abuse and any harmful treatment.
For the organisers of the conference in the Faroe Islands, it was essential to inspire more research on childhood and adolescence, and to measure the impact of different programs. They hope an essay competition launched during the conference will encourage and inspire students to become researchers. The deadline is still open, see http://www.nfbo.org/essay/
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