Category: Sweden

  • Is New Zealand looking more and more like Sweden?

    I have several links to share on what is happening in Sweden:

    1.  In this first link it was also reported that when the “Italian politician pulled his son’s hair” he was pulling his son’s collar. Unfortunately some hair got caught in his hand at the same time he pulled at his son’s collar. As soon as his son screamed he stopped. But these two facts are being ignored.

    Italian politician convicted of child cruelty for pulling his son’s hair, (2011)

    There has been a very interesting development in the Malaysian case: On Jan 30, the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived in Stockholm and took the four children with him back to Malaysia. They arrived in Malaysia on January 31, and the children were received by the Prime Minister. There are articles about the case in many Swedish newspapers, but Swedish Radio and TV have not mentioned the case or the radical resolution – not with one single word.

    Here are some more articles on the Malaysian case:
    1 – Najib thanks Sweden for facilitating children’s return
    (What a diplomatic way to describe the situation!)

    2 – Children of M’sian couple glad to be in Malaysia

    Comments: After the Mumble incident Indian families started to flee from Sweden.

    3 –
    (The Romanian Family in Sweden, (2013))

    Comments: The Romanian family lost the public care case in December 2013. They have appealed, but as long as the criminal case has not been decided, their children will remain in care.

    4 – The Polish Family, (2012 – 2013) “Våldtogs i jourhem – nu kan syskonen få flytta hem igen (Raped in the temporary foster home . now the sibblings can return home)

    Quotes from the article:

    I will never be able to forget what they did to our family. But now I just want my children to come home, says the biological mother.

    Her lawyer, Kerstin Koorti, is critical of the social services.
    – This only shows that the system is not functioning. I think they have taken a great many hasty decisions and exposed these children to terrible things.”


    5 – The Malaysian Family, (2013 – 2014),

    Outrage over couple’s detention without trial in Sweden,

    As usual, there is no common sense at all and no sense of proportionality.

    Quote from the invitation to a seminarium that will take place at the Univ of Sthlm on February 11, 2014:

    “This year’s seminar series of Jurisprudence continues on Tuesday, February 11 with Pernilla Leviner and the theme: The Swedish smacking ban in the Parental Code –  effects, consequences and challenges 35 years after the implementation of the reform.

    Pernilla Leviner is PhD in public law and she works at the Faculty of Law, Stockholm University.

    Pernilla’s research lies within and on the boundary between public law and family law and it has mainly dealt with society’s responsibility to protect children from crime and victimization. The thesis from 2011 was about the social services’ legal prerequisites to intervene to protect children. After her Dissertation Pernilla spent for one and a half years as a visiting researcher at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and there she conducted research concerning the role and function of courts in child protection but also prohibiting corporal punishment of children, among other issues.

    This seminar will deal with the Swedish smacking ban, its origins and meaning but also implications, dilemmas and challenges related to the protection of children from violence in Sweden today.

    Sweden as everyone knows, was the first country in the world which in 1979 imposed a ban on corporal punishment of children. To work for a similar ban in other countries is seen by many as a key measure of a child rights perspective and several international organizations have this at the very top of their agenda. In advocacy of a smacking ban in other countries Sweden is often referred to as a role model, especially given the positive changes that are shown in terms of attitudes and use of corporal punishment as a method of education. Even though the smacking ban should be seen in a broader context and that a number of factors conspired in the development that led to the low tolerance of violence, the reform itself must still seen as a legal political success in the sense that the objectives set by the legislature have largely been fulfilled. However, there is a danger that we in Sweden may be pleased with ourselves over our successful smacking ban and not problematize the victimization of children from a broader perspective . A closer analysis reveals that the Swedish system regarding the protection of children from violence and victimization in their homes is facing a series of challenges, some of which may even be linked to the introduction of the smacking ban and its effects. Recent studies indicate, for example, the creation of a problematic taboo around violence against children. Overall, despite the fact that the Swedish smacking ban in many ways must be seen as a success and an example, there is reason to critically examine the Swedish smacking ban from a broader perspective with regard to the child welfare system as a whole.

    This is the
    overall aim of this seminar. The ban will be described and placed in a historical and contextual perspective after which the effects and consequences? both positive and potentially negative? will be discussed. The situation in Sweden in this area will also be compared with the situation in Australia where prohibition does not exist despite strong pressure from some areas and where a recurring debate on the issue has taken place in recent years.”

    Time and place: Tuesday, February 11 kl.16 :00-18: 00 in the Faculty Room (8th floor next to the elevator, building C)

    Welcome

    Swedish:

    Årets seminarieserie i allmän rättslära fortsätter på tisdag den 11 februari med Pernilla Leviner och temat Det svenska i agaförbudet i föräldrabalken – effekter, konsekvenser och utmaningar 35 år efter reformens genomförande.

    Pernilla Leviner är juris doktor i offentlig rätt verksam vid juridiska fakulteten Stockholms universitet.

    Pernillas forskning ligger inom och i gränslandet mellan offentlig rätt och familjerätt och har framförallt behandlat samhällets ansvar att skydda barn från brott och utsatthet. Avhandlingen från 2011 handlade om socialtjänstens rättsliga förutsättningar att ingripa till skydd för barn.  Efter disputation vistades Pernilla under ett och ett halvt år som gästforskare vid Monash University, Melbourne, Australien och där bedrivit forskning bland annat i frågor rörande domstolars roll och funktion i barnskyddsarbetet men även om förbud mot barnaga.

    Detta seminarium kommer behandla det svenska agaförbudet, dess tillkomst och innebörd men även konsekvenser, dilemman och utmaningar som är kopplade till skyddet för barn från våldsutsatthet i Sverige idag.

    Sverige var som bekant det första landet i världen som 1979 införde ett förbud mot barnaga. Att verka för ett liknande förbud i andra länder ses av många som en central åtgärd ur ett barnrättsperspektiv och flera internationella organisationer har detta allra högst på sin agenda. I förespråkandet av agaförbud i andra länder hänvisas ofta till Sverige som ett föredöme, särskilt med tanke på de positiva förändringar som här visats i fråga om attityder och bruk av aga som en uppfostringsmetod.  Även om agareformen bör ses i ett större sammanhang och att en rad faktorer samverkat i den utveckling som lett fram till den låga toleransen i fråga om våld, måste reformen i sig ändå ses som en rättspolitisk succé i den meningen att de mål som uppställdes av lagstiftaren i hög grad har uppfyllts. Det finns dock en risk för att vi i Sverige slår oss till ro med vår lyckade agareform utan att problematisera barns utsatthet ur ett större perspektiv. Vid en närmare analys framkommer att det svenska systemet i fråga om skydd för barn från våld och utsatthet i sina hem står inför en rad utmaningar, varav vissa till och med möjligen kan kopplas till agaförbudets införande och effekter. Senare studier talar bland annat för att det skapats ett problematiskt tabu kring våld mot barn. Sammantaget finns det, trots att den svenska agareformen på många sätt måste ses som en framgång och ett föredöme, skäl att kritiskt granska det svenska agaförbudet ur ett större perspektiv med beaktande av barnskyddssystemet som helhet.

    Detta är det övergripande syfte med detta seminarium. Förbudet kommer att beskrivas och sättas i ett historiskt och kontextuellt perspektiv varefter effekter och konsekvenser ? både positiva och eventuellt negativa ? kommer att diskuteras. Situationen i Sverige på detta område kommer även övergripande att jämföras med situationen i Australien där något förbud inte finns trots starka påtryckningar från vissa håll och där en flitig debatt i frågan pågått under senare år.

    Tid och plats: tisdag den 11 februari kl.16:00-18:00 i Fakultetsrummet (plan 8 intill hissen, C-huset)

  • Please sign this petition


    Every year, over 20,000 children are seized by child welfare in Sweden. In a country that is regarded to have come so far in its welfare development,…
    Read more and sign the petition here:

    http://www.change.org/petitions/let-our-children-go-for-a-complete-overhaul-of-swedish-family-policy

  • Socials fast-track new case in Ruby Harrold-Claesson’s absence

    Socials fast-track new case in

    Ruby Harrold-Claesson’s absence

    Family’s Lawyer Inexplicably Banned

    The struggle continues for little Domenic Johannson, seized by police from his agonized parents because he was briefly homeschooled, stayed home with his mother as a preschooler, and was reportedly too affectionate and outgoing. Close observers of the Johansson state-sponsored “kidnapping” case believe the Visby Social Board is pushing Swedish courts to fast-track a new series of court challenges in an effort to have the cases quashed long before Ruby Harrold-Claesson wins her way back as counsel to Domenic’s parents, Annie and Christer Johansson.

    Earlier this month, Swedish courts banished Harrold-Claesson from the case after Domenic’s  appointed public “defender” complained to the courts about her participation. Harrold-Claesson, president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights, is a widely known and respected advocate for families in custody disputes with child protective services, and has won many such cases in Sweden, restoring dozens of children back to the rightful arms of loving parents. She has since filed an appeal to her court ordered removal.

    Word has it the next series of law suits might be heard as early as the second week of July in Swedish courts on the island of Gotland. This new case, challenging the “keeping” of Domenic, was filed on behalf of the Johanssons by Harrold-Claesson just days before she was banished.
    The previous series of cases challenged the initial “taking” of Domenic. In those series of suits, the Johanssons were “represented” by court appointed counsel, resulting in Domenic’s continued seperation from his parents. It is for this very reason Christer Johansson has dismissed the original court picked counsel and sought out the hard-hitting Harrold-Claesson to represent him.

    June 25, 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of the violent seizure of the then 7-year-old child. So traumatized was Domenic by the acts of armed police on behalf of the Visby Social Services board, witnesses tell us he vomited during and shortly after the shocking scene when uniformed Swedish police stormed an India bound jetliner just moments before take off. We are told the boy’s mother, Annie, collapsed during the assault. The family was emigrating to India, Annie’s home country.

    By the end of 2009, the Johanssons had lost all their court appeals challenging the “taking” of their only child. In the December 2009 Chamber Court decision, the court sites as justification the fact that Domenic was home schooled (at the time legal in Sweden), that his parents chose to delay or forgo immunizations (also legal in Sweden) and that the boy had two cavities in his baby teeth.

    Annie is a native of India. She emigrated with Christer to his native country of Sweden in 2001 after an earth quake hit India and the couple lost everything they owned. At the time of the quake, Annie was pregnant with Domenic. The couple always planned to return to India where Annie’s large family resides, and were finally doing so the day Domenic was seized.

  • Sweden’s State-Sponsored “Kidnapping” of 7-year-old Homeschooler Approaches One Year Anniversary

    A Review of the Egregious

    December 2009 Court Decision

    Allowing Social Services

    to Keep Little Domenic in State Custody

    It was one year ago today, June 25, when armed police, at the behest of Social Services of Gotland, stormed an Indian bound jetliner in Stockholm, Sweden, and forcibly removed the Johansson family. Their crime? They had briefly home schooled their only child in a land which looks upon home schooling families with contempt, and just this week passed a new education law making home schooling illegal across the Swedish landscape. This story examines the life of the Johanssons and the December 2009 Swedish Chamber Court Decision which essentially holds a family captive on the Swedish island of Gotland.

    When cultures collide

    Because his mother is Indian, Domenic grew up somewhat different from the average Swedish child, naturally adopting Indian ways and customs. Annie, the now 8 year-old boy’s mother, believes in a simple life where mothers raise their children by hand until school age. Therefore, Annie and her husband Christer never enrolled Domenic in Swedish day care and preschool and were repeatedly harassed by Social Services of Gotland for their choice to raise Domenic at home.
    (Click photos to enlarge.)

    In Sweden, it is the rare child who does not attend day care soon after birth while mothers rejoin the workforce. Domenic and Annie were the exception, and not the rule. Therefore, their way of life attracted attention. Mother and child remained home with each other daily, enjoying the most natural of relationships. Yet shockingly, in the December 2009 court decision to continue holding Domenic in state custody, the fact that Domenic was never placed in day care was held against the family. According to the December 2009 court document, “…the parents have taken a risk with not letting Domenic participate in child care and schooling.” When, in the history of humanity, has it been a “risk” for a mother to raise her child at home herself?

    “Lives in the shadow”

    The court has clearly held Annie’s position as a foreigner in Sweden against her. You see, Annie’s native tongue is English, yet she has learned to speak and read some Swedish over time since emigrating to the country in 2001. On the other hand, Christer speaks both Swedish and English fluently, as does Domenic. Over the years, Christer has done most of the translating and speaking for Annie. Gotland Socials have interpreted Annie’s reliance upon her husband to communicate for her as a weakness, as cited in the December 2009 court document, stating, “Annie Johansson lives in the shadow of her husband.” If you moved to a foreign country with your spouse, who grew up in that country, would you not also be heavily reliant upon your spouse if you did not speak the language well? Would such a reliance make you an unfit parent?

    Mother earns Masters but “lacks ability”

    Annie received her BA from the University of Poona in 1994 and then her MA from the University of Pune, 1996. She also pursued additional education by earning a First Class diploma in Advertising and Public Relations, also in 1996, from the Bombay Institute of Management Studies, as well as a diploma of Distinction in Information and Systems Management from Aptech Computer Education school in 1998.  Yet, Social Services of Gotland managed to convince the Chamber Court judge that while Annie has the “will” to be a good mother, she, a multi-degreed individual, hasn’t the “ability.” The December 2009 Chamber Court decision states, “Christer Johansson and Annie Johansson have a will to act as good parents but lack ability.” Do you have a Masters degree, or perhaps just a Bachelors degree? If so, did your degree take a certain amount of knowledge, self-discipline, maturity and “ability” to obtain?

    A bereaved mother’s “present state”

    According to the Johanssons, in the fall of 2008 Social Services of Gotland began actively investigating and harrassing them after the family notified the local school of their intent to home school Domenic for a brief time prior to their move to India. Compulsory school age is 7 in Sweden. Domenic turned 7 in September of that year. At the time, home schooling was still legal in Sweden. In light of the pending emigration to India, the Johanssons were acting in the best interest of their son by making an educational choice which would naturally minimize disruption to his studies while they moved.

    Even though home schooling was at the time legal in Sweden, many in positions of governmental authority are against the practice, as demonstrated just this week when on June 22 the Swedish Parliament approved a new Education Act making home schooling illegal in Sweden. In 2008, the Johanssons were met with resistance to their home school plans from officials at the local Gotland schools, as well as from employees Social Services. Thus, the interrogation and investigation of the Johanssons began. Because it was their legal right, the Johanssons stood their ground and home schooled Domenic through his first school age year.

    By the school year’s end, the harassment from Social Services took its toll on Annie, but she persevered nonetheless. However, since Sweden has “kidnapped” her son, Annie’s health has greatly deteriorated, as noted in the December 2009 decision, “Her present state strongly affects her ability to be a parent.”

    Let’s consider this in context: By December 2009, the Johansson family had been terrorized by the Social Board of Gotland for more than sixteen months; had their home swarmed and searched by armed Swedish police; had been pursued by armed police, at the request of the Social Board, to the very tip of the tarmac at an international airport; had watched helplessly as armed police stormed the jetliner upon which they were passengers; had been forcibly removed from the airplane; once back in the airport had been tricked into allowing the Socials to separate Domenic from them by stating they were simply taking him “to the room next door” only to find out minutes later that he had been wisked out of the airport and was headed back to Gotland and into forced foster care. They had endured numerous meetings with the Socials pleading for the return of their son; were lied to when told he’d be returned in three days; were accused of neglecting him because of two cavities discovered in his baby teeth, after the fact, during those three days in state custody; they’d been through three levels of court cases attempting to have their son returned to them; they’d not been allowed to see their son except for one hour every five weeks. All of this trauma perpetrated by the state, and the Chamber Court judges Annie’s fitness as a parent based upon her “present state.” How ironic that the same people who created terror and chaos in the Johansson’s lives are those who now claim that Annie is unfit to parent in her “present state.” The Swedish Social Services of Gotland have violated and torn apart a peaceful and loving family. Now they punish that family for their suffering.

    Parent’s agony labeled “lack of skill” during supervised visits

    The December 2009 decision indicates that Domenic and his parents do not know how to interact with each other during state-supervised visits. Specifically, the document states, “Both Christer and Annie Johansson show a lack of skill…There is a lack of dialogue and interaction from both sides.”

    Since Domenic’s seizure, Annie and Christer have battled the fight of a lifetime against forces with seemingly unlimited power and resources. They are allowed to see their only child for one state-supervised hour every five weeks, and are permitted to speak with him for one state-monitored ten minute telephone call every two weeks. During these times of fleeting interaction with their son, Annie and Christer are severely restricted in what they can say and do in Domenic’s presence and they are watched constantly.

    During one visit, Annie, overwhelmed by her emotions at seeing her son after such a long separation, began to cry. Instead of understanding and sympathizing with the pain Domenic, Annie and Christer were experiencing, the attending social worker threatened them, telling them if Annie cried again the visit would end immediately. Can you imagine being threatened to lose your one precious hour every five weeks with your child simply because you’ve behaved naturally, as a brokenhearted mother who is losing her child? Is it any wonder all three of them, Domenic, Annie and Christer, don’t know what to say or how to conduct themselves under the ever present microscope of an attending social worker? Yet, in the December Chamber Court decision, this family is accused of having a “lack of skill” in meeting each other under impossible conditions. Again, this family is punished for suffering created by the state.

    How far must we stretch our imagination to understand the strain a parent-child relationship suffers once social services removes a child from his home? Since their separation, Domenic, Annie and Christer have suffered great turmoil and impossible adjustments. Looking forward to beginning his new life with his parents and large family in India, Domenic instead was forced to live in a stranger’s house in Sweden. At the time he would have begun school in India, he was forced to begin school in Sweden. On his 8th birthday, the heartbroken boy was denied permission to see his parents. When his first Christmas away from home arrived, he was again denied permission to visit or even talk by telephone with the parents he’s always loved and adored. Instead, Domenic was forced to celebrate his birthday and the holiday season with strangers while the social workers surrounded themselves with family, friends and loved ones.

    There are other restrictions, as well. The Johanssons are not allowed to bring gifts or treats for Domenic. Christer’s elderly father and wheelchair-bound mother, Domenic’s grandparents, close and dear to him since birth, accompany the family to the state-supervised visits. Unaccountably, at times these gentle people found themselves kept out of the visiting room. No explanation or reason given.

    According to the Johanssons, the family has been instructed always to smile when they see Domenic and never to talk about the separation. In essence, they are expected to act as if everything is perfectly fine when they see their son. They are not at liberty to tell Domenic that they do not agree with his living in foster care. They are not at liberty to tell him they are fighting to bring him home. Instead, according to the Johanssons, they are to interact with their son in such a manner that would obviously lead little Domenic to believe his removal from his family is perfectly acceptable to his mother and father.

    We have no idea, however, what social workers are telling Domenic. If his mother and father are not allowed to speak of the separation and are not allowed to tell Domenic they are fighting for him, does that not leave Domenic to wonder what his parents are thinking? Doesn’t that leave a little boy totally confused about what has happened and at the mercy of whatever message the social workers and foster parents choose to tell him? Children often naturally blame themselves for family difficulties. If Annie and Christer are not allowed to reassure Domenic that he is loved, cherished and wanted back home, isn’t this little boy open to very serious and long-term psychological damage?  We also wonder what might be happening in Domenic’s foster life which perhaps he has been forbidden to share with his parents.

    It is clear why Domenic, Annie and Christer do not know what to say or do when they see each other. This family has become nothing more than puppets on the strings of a heartless puppeteer. They’ve been threatened into doing and saying as little as possible when visiting Domenic. The question remains: what has Domenic been told or gone through which has caused him to no longer interact naturally with his parents? Why does Domenic now suffer huge gaps in his memory, as noted by his distressed parents?

    National Health Care – How a man’s conscientious efforts to regain health were used against him
    Sweden is a socialist country. The country’s health care is administered by the government, as opposed to private health care where patients enjoy doctor patient privacy. In a socialist system, your health record is the government’s business.

    In the Domenic Johansson case, Christer’s health records from years previous were eventually used against him. After the earth quake and the family’s emigration back to Sweden, Christer suffered a major depressive episode. Yet he did the right thing. He recognized his condition and sought help from the Swedish health system. After a psychiatric evaluation, Christer received the anti-depressant medication Seroxat (also known as Paxil). Unfortunatly, this drug can have severe side effects and Christer fell victim to some of its worst, including dependency.

    Once more, Christer did the right thing. He recognized his further deteriorating condition and sought help from the Swedish health system again, at which time he was offered the popular Swedish depression remedy: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). A well informed and intelligent man, Christer already knew the dangers of ECT and turned the psychiatric clinic’s offered remedy down. Christer found he had only one choice: to wean himself off Paxil, which he succeeded in doing over several months.

    Unfortunately for Christer, health records of Swedish citizens are not private. Any government agency or employee, it seems, can obtain a citizen’s records. As in countless other state child protective cases, Christer’s health records were obtained by Visby Social Services and the often conflicting diagnoses of Christer’s mental health condition in 2003 and 2004 have been used against him in 2009. In response, Christer requested a new psychiatric evaluation. Dated October 11, 2009,  the newest psychiatric evaluation documents the history of Christer’s struggles and provides a new evaluation and conclusion by Visby Adult Neuropsychiatry Department. According to the report, which was submitted in full to the Chamber Court,  Christer is said to be healthy and completely free of any mental illness or other diagnosis.

    Even with this latest psychiatric evaluation demonstrating Christer’s depressive illness, as well as the severe side effects he’d suffered from the psychiatric medications are safely in the past, the court continued to insist in its December decision that Christer suffers from psychiatric illness. Surprisingly, the written decision attributes this “diagnosis” as “…according to the social services’ understanding a factor that affects Christer Johansson’s ability to care.” Evidently, the opinion of a professional psychiatrist with Visby Adult Neuropsychiatry Department holds little weight in the Chamber Court at Stockholm over an “understanding” by personnel at Social Services of Gotland.

    Terrorized into submission
    While Annie and Christer stood their ground against Visby Social Services of Gotland in defense of their parental rights to raise and school Domenic at home, after the boy was seized the Swedish LVU system soon had Annie and Christer terrorized into complete submission. As recorded in the December 2009 Chamber Court decision, Christer was obviously a man brought to his knees.

    The Decision records Christer as agreeing to everything Social Services of Gotland demanded. The Johanssons agreed to enroll Domenic in school, to obtain all immunizations, to provide any other health and psychiatric care deemed necessary by the social board for Domenic. They even went so far as to agree with the social board that Domenic was psychologically delayed as a direct result of not attending day care, preschool and the first grade. The Johanssons were exactly where Visby Social Services wanted them: in complete submission. A Court truly concerned with the child’s wellbeing, however misguided, would here have concluded that with full cooperation from the family in every possible therapeutic suggestion, the need to remove the child should no longer exist. But this was not the aim of the Social Services.

    Catch 22: cruelty at its utmost
    By December 2009, six months after their precious son was ripped from them, Christer was a man willing to cooperate fully with Visby Social Services, in an effort to restore Domenic to his family. In a sworn statement before the Chamber Courts, this father agreed to follow the entire care planned devised for Domenic, with the exception that Domenic’s care be provided while he continued to live in mandatory foster care. The Johanssons were willing to do everything and anything Social Services of Gotland demanded, so they might finally have their son restored home.

    The most cruel aspect of this case is boldly recorded in the December 2009 Court decision. In a Catch 22 scenario, the Johanssons lose their son if they agree to the entire LVU care plan, which includes mandatory foster care; and the Johanssons lose their son if they agree to the entire LVU care plan, with the exception of mandatory foster care. In conclusion, the court wrote, “Question is therefore if needed care can be given voluntarily. In the care plan is, among other things, said that Domenic should be placed in a foster home which Annie Johansson and Christer Johansson have not agreed to. Chamber Court can therefore state that needed consent to needed care is not present. In such a case, the Provincial Court’s decision to give Domenic care according to LVU should stand. The appeals should therefore be denied.”

    In other words, the Johanssons submitted to every demand of the Social Services of Gotland. Those demands included what some would describe as a coerced court admission that they had made wrong choices for Domenic as accused by Social Services. The demands also included that the Johanssons must agree to everything in the LVU care plan, including mandatory foster care for their son. Therefore, they were damned if they submitted to all demands and damned if they did not. The maximum possible compliance was obtained from this suffering family, including denying their own natural way of life. Then, when they were in complete submission, they were denied everything.

    How to understand this case?

    The plain and simple facts are these: A loved, fortunate and healthy child was taken without legal process from his parents for indeterminate (and faulty) ideological reasons. His family was then punished for the trauma they had experienced, and because they did not simply acquiesce in the loss of their child. There is nothing legal, nothing logical, and nothing just in this scenario. That it could happen in a modern and supposedly democratic nation defies belief. Any free citizen of good will, in any country of the world, should be concerned when a government has the power to act in this way unhindered. This case should concern all of us. All parents, all families, and all who believe in human rights and human dignity.

    Sweden’s State-Sponsored “Kidnapping” of 7-year-old Homeschooler Approaches One Year Anniversary

    Please visit this website often to see what you can do to help out: http://friendsofdomenic.blogspot.com

  • Ruby Harrold-Claesson has been removed from Domenic Johansson’s case in Sweden

    Our good friend Ruby Harrold-Claesson has been removed from Domenic Johansson’s Case in Sweden. Please read the two reports below. One from the HSLDA and the other from WND.

    Ruby Harrold-Claesson

    Judge banishes family’s custody lawyer

    Chief of Nordic Committee for Human Rights told she’s off case

    An internationally known human-rights lawyer who had agreed to work on the case of a Swedish family whose son was taken into custody by agents of the government social-services program for being homeschooled says she has been banished from the case. Ruby Harrold-Claesson, the president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights and a well-known advocate for families in disputes with social-services agencies over the custody of their children, had been working on the case of 9-year-old Dominic Johansson, who was taken in a state-sponsored abduction in mid-2009. His parents, Christer and Annie, had been in a dispute with local government officials over their plans to homeschool him as the family prepared to move to India, Annie’s home country. Police, with instructions from social services, on June 25, 2009, boarded a jet preparing to depart on an international flight to India to take Dominic into custody, where he’s been since. An e-mail from Harrold-Claesson obtained today by WND confirmed she would appeal the determination, and Christer Johansson told WND, also by e-mail, a new lawyer had called him to introduce himself. “So I said, ‘Hold on a little, where is my lawyer Ruby?’ He said she was removed from the case by the court [be]cause our son’s lawyer made a complaint against her.”
    He said the court apparently removed Harrold-Claesson because the lawyer made an attempt to see the child in the school setting where social-services agents have put him. “I will not accept any other lawyer than Ruby,” Johansson told WND. “I just can’t start over again. “Funny thing, Ruby has been asking the social services for the case documents, investigations and all, but they refused to send it to her. This lawyer on the other hand got it all before I knew about him.
    “I will refuse this lawyer and demand Ruby to be accepted!” Christer Johansson wrote…

    Read more here: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=165361

    Please sign this petition if you have not already signed it. Click here:  http://rohus.nu/en/?English_information:PetitionIf you have signed this petition please also make sure that your signature is not in this invalid list.
    Thanks.

    Sweden Denies Due Process to Family

    In a stunning display of bureaucratic indifference and contempt of due process rights, a local Swedish court has removed a highly qualified attorney from the Johansson case… Appointed only after much back-and-forth with the judicial system, attorney Ruby Harrold-Claesson has now been removed from the case after she attempted to visit Domenic’s school with his parents just a few weeks ago. Harrold-Claesson is president of the Nordic Human Rights Committee and a well-known human rights attorney in Sweden who specializes in working with families whose children have been taken away from them by the state. Following her attempt to visit Domenic, social workers immediately retaliated by cutting off all phone contact. Unlike most Swedish lawyers who are, in all cases, both appointed and paid for by the courts, Harrold-Claesson aggressively and tenaciously fights an often uphill-battle against social services agencies, guardians ad litem and judges that just go along with the recommendations of social workers. She has taken a number of cases to the European Court of Human Rights. HSLDA Staff Attorney and Director of International Affairs Mike Donnelly commented that this action goes against the basic notions of fairness. “Ruby’s dismissal by the court is shocking in light of the most basic understanding of fairness and due process,” said Donnelly. “One of the principal requirements of due process is that a person be represented by counsel of their choosing, to a fair and impartial judiciary, with an opportunity for a full and fair hearing of all the disputed facts. By removing Harrold-Claesson, the court has dramatically interfered with Mr. Johansson’s right to counsel and called the fairness of the entire process into question.”

    Read more here: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Sweden/201006140.asp

  • Stop beating on Sweden’s parents!

    Stop beating on Sweden’s parents!

    By Caroline Olsson

    Translation: Ruby Harrold-Claesson, Lawyer, President of the NCHR

    This article was previously published on the Swedish Internet Site, Newsmill.se – 2009-12-03

    http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2009/12/03/sluta-sla-pa-sveriges-foraldrar

    Swedish authorities and legal institutions have a negative attitude towards parenthood, which is not good for the relationship between children and parents. Many children need more time with their parents to feel safe. Now the government intends be even stricter with school attendance, and even prevent parents who want to take care of their children’s schooling, so-called Home-schooling. They are also negative to children’s absence from school for travel with their families, and in general they announce “tougher measures” which will not help the confused children.

    Children need their parents as life-coaches, but there is so little time in today’s stressful society. Children need a solid relationship with an adult to find their identity, and develop their personalities in a natural way.
    Swedish society does not respect parenthood. Parents are seen as some sort of service to the school system, which will ensure the provision of children who are rested, fed, have done their homework and are interested in going to school.

    I am sure that very many of the problems of today’s society, have arisen precisely because time for children and parents to be together has shrunk. This has happened gradually, and perhaps imperceptibly. We have given priority to other things, and now we need to wake up and see that too many children are suffering.

    Those in power do not see this connection, so now they want to legislate more stringent attendance at school and even “tougher measures”. They want to prevent parents who have the opportunity to take responsibility for their children’s schooling, so-called Home-schooling, by requiring “special reasons”. It will also be more difficult to get time off from school for example to travel with the family. They have not tried to find out how very many children suffer today in the schools, due to bullying, harassment, and the like. Politicians talk about the “right to education”, as if there are no problems in the schools. Many children and young people are experiencing the “right” to attend school and social interaction, which the politicians are talking about, rather like a prison and a torment. A very large proportion of children today are exhibiting anxiety about going to school.

    Politicians say: “We must have schools, because we have had them since the 1800s.” Usually it would not be so modern for you to say that something is from the 1800s. We are living in a completely different society now. Back then they wanted to increase public knowledge. But now the level of education of most adults is much higher than primary school, so now there is no reason to force all children to go to school, if the parents have other options.

    The Government’s new Education Act Bill sends out a very serious message to all the parents in this country. We are now being prohibited from giving our children a better alternative to going to school. Parents are simply not allowed to judge what is good for their own children.

    Sweden needs a new approach to parenthood. We need to see parents as experts on their children. The solution is not to pull children away from their parents even more, but to support children and parents, to make use of all the time they can get to spend together.

    Sweden is selling out the immense power that parents’ responsibility for their children represents. This is a disaster. We cannot afford to do without it. It is upon that power that a society rests. If you who are in power continue to display this negative attitude, you will undermine the whole society. You cannot replace parenting by doubling the number of school nurses and counsellors. Parenthood cannot be substituted at all. Your animosity towards parents will only cost countless extra billions.

  • New Zealand continues to follow Sweden

    From Family First NZ Media Release:

    https://familyintegrity.org.nz/2008/eight-smacking-prosecutions-in-six-month-period/

    “According to the Police Executive Meeting 6 Month Review papers, there have been no prosecutions for ‘smacking’, but the paper (Official police papers) says that “eight ‘minor acts of physical discipline’ events against children were prosecuted with six yet to be resolved.”

    This is what Ruby Harrold-Claesson informed us back in March 2007 about Sweden

    https://familyintegrity.org.nz/2007/emails-from-ruby-harrold-claesson/

    March 2007

    [4] – “There has been no increase in the number of parents drawn into the Swedish criminal justice system for minor assaults in the past 25 years.”

    Rebuttal: Before 1978 no parent would have been drawn before the police and prosecutor like the priest who had slapped his 16-yr old daughter. (See Case 1 in my Case Law). Deborah Coddington quoted Prof. Christian Diesen in her article “Anti-smack campaign fails to pack a punch”, (http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=271&ObjectID=10393619). Diesen said that there are “7000 reports of child abuse per year in Sweden, but only 10 % are prosecuted.” These are statistics from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
    Diesen says “only 10% are prosecuted.” He wants to see more prosecutions – even if the parents should be found not guilty.

    Recent statistics show that there are 11 000 reports of child abuse per year in Sweden and that there has been a 14% increase between 2005 – 2006. See http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0702/S00378.htm

  • Why should we discriminate against children?

    Sten Danielson: “The hostility – and anxiety – is reminiscent of racism”

    Aftonbladet, May 28, 2008.

    http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article2553761.ab

    It is becoming increasingly common with children not being allowed on: flights, hotels, restaurants. But anyone who becomes uncomfortable by the proximity of a small child is in need of psychiatric care regardless of the reason for their phobia, not respect for their abnormalities.

    No, follow up the smacking ban with a legal prohibition against a child-ban, writes Sten Danielson.

    Recently, we have been “bequeathed” with a new phenomenon – no children on air travel, in hotels and business places where it is not in keeping with the natural order and security reasons, mental health care views or (rightly or wrongly) feared future destruction of character of the young to reasonably justify the prohibitions. The basis for these [prohibitions] has simply been some adults’ reluctance to have children in their vicinity.

    The discriminatory situation has the particularity of being completely irrational and thus the model for a violation of the victim’s human dignity. If I order food and drinks at a restaurant or a cafe and I do not infringe any code of conduct, if I go into a department store to buy a suit without being a disturbance in any way, if I order a trip to Thailand or the Caribbean and a hotel room to go with it and all the time I behave soberly and orderly and do not molest any travelling companion, it is of course completely irrelevant what skin- and hair colour I have, what religion I adhere to or if I do not have any at all, if I am a Moderate or Social Democrat, an Ecologist or leftist. If I am refused access with any such extraneous motives, I then have an objective basis to consider myself discriminated against.

    And my being a child it naturally just as unimportant as if the colour of my skin were white or black, etc. Anyone who feels uncomfortable in the proximity of a small child is in need of psychiatric care regardless of the reason for their phobia, not respect for their abnormalities, in the same way as if their phobia was about skin-colour, crooked nose or a name that suggests Arab or Muslim descent.

    I am not a “child romantic” and among the most idiotic things I heard in my long life on earth (75 years) is the cliché a psychologist blurted out in the 50’s that “there are no nasty children.” Children can be terribly nasty. How they have become such is a different matter. Often the children have probably taken over the wickedness of the adults (bad) examples. Children can also be wonderful, empathetic and loving. Around the same time as Engla was murdered two small siblings were murdered in Arboga. In a public letter bordering on what was unbearably gripping, the father of the victims wrote among other things, that the children always tried to help and support each other; when one was sad the other would give consolation. If we adults treat our youngsters from the start, with justice and respect and love they usually tend to go on to live with these characteristics as guiding principles.

    But if those around us treat our young ones with pathological coldness and evil (I will not hesitate before that judgement!) that tends to be associated with irrational discrimination, we can instead get a terrible terrorist and suicide bomber. Animosity towards children is animosity towards people, just as much as for example, racism and xenophobia.

    Children can be extremely difficult, everyone who comes into contact with them knows that. But most often this small vital passionate brat is at the same time double fun and triple wonderful! Again and again, we see in our youngsters this spontaneous love and joy and tenderness towards small and big, and all living creatures, which in spite of everything makes human life worth living. The adult who does not understand this is sick in the soul and in need of treatment.

    I’m sure you know the story of the boy who, after a raging storm went along the seashore and threw stranded shellfish back into the sea. When he was throwing back one of them a wise-ass adult said:

    “What does it matter that you throw in a few shellfish and save their lives? The storm has displaced thousands of them! ”

    “But for this one, it matters a lot,” the boy replied.

    Jesus said that if we do not become like children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. He understood.

    So let us now without further delay follow up the smacking ban with a legal prohibition against a child-ban in virtually all communication, places of business, hotels and guesthouses, stores and events in public places! And there should be both proper fines and prison sentences for those who break that law!

    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““

    Reply 1 – Disruptive children [are]

    the parents’ responsibility

    By Caesar von Walzel, former parent of small children,

    age 64 yrs, healthy! Stockholm

    http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article2599677.ab

    Aftonbladet, 2008-06-03

    The former Region assessor’s article about a child-ban is perceived by me as depressing reading for two reasons.
    1) The comparison of a vast number of racist examples that claims that someone might have the same aversion to children in general. A total miss of the point! It is DISRUPTIVE children who are disruptive, just like all other ill-mannered, loud-mouthed or drunken elements in a public place. (They are, of course, nor welcome – or?) The paying guests at a restaurant, on an airplane, the beach – and so on have the same right to the atmosphere that they are visiting and also the right to expect it. For example, calm when eating, repose or relaxation that a well-decorated restaurant or other place chosen for the purpose may offer, instead of being forced into a “kindergarten-atmosphere”!

    Of course, it is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their children do not destroy for others.

    In the editorial of SvD one could read about disturbing things in a swimming center, in which it is clearly stated that the parents of young children are the most aggressive ones. I share that view.

    The parents of young children have the same rights and obligations as other persons. I was able to extend / change the “prohibition” to the prohibition of the incompetent selfish parents who are accompanied by disruptive and unmanageable children. Other families with children are of course welcome.

    2) The good assessor seems to represent the kind of past “sovereignty” who believes that people who do not share his view, have phobias and need psychiatric care. I can inform him that fortunately, we have left this type of one-party-regime and authoritarianism behind us in our Nordic democracy. With this kind of argument you lose the most important thing in a debate piece, namely the facts!

    “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““

    Children ARE disruptive!

    http://meritwager.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/svenska-barn-ar-storande/

    (swedish children are disruptive)

    “It is becoming increasingly common with children not being allowed on: flights, hotels, restaurants. But anyone who becomes uncomfortable by the proximity of a small child is in need of psychiatric care regardless of the reason for their phobia, not respect for their abnormalities.

    No, follow up the smacking ban with a legal prohibition against a child-ban, writes Sten Danielson.”

    That is what is written in the beginning of an article in Aftonbladet. What nonsense! Just because you do not want screaming, annoying and ill-bred kids around you, doesn’t mean that you are in need of psychiatric treatment! On the contrary: it is healthy to react against the screaming, fussy and wild kids everywhere, for example, in cafes, patisseries and restaurants as well as in museums and in churches, etc. It has nothing to do with the need for psychiatric treatment when we want to sit in peace and quiet and drink a cup of coffee or attend a church service or other celebration at church without kids, who are carrying on.

    It is of course the parents who are destroying their children and thus destroying for their children, it is the parents who are the most aggravating. Too many of them seem not to have a clue about how to bring up their children and are unable to keep track of them and teach them into show consideration for other people.

    The article in Aftonbladet is among the most diffuse and stupid, I have read in a long time. One wanting not to have children around when you want to relax or enjoy a culinary or cultural experience has nothing at all to do with “discrimination”, which the author is trying to make it seem to be. And if it really were a question of discrimination, it is rather the parents with hyperactive children who are crying and fussing who discriminate against others who have not chosen to have all the noise around them in different situations.
    And – as always – there are several sides of the issue. All children are not disruptive, all parents are not ignorant and don’t-give-a-damn. Even though many are.

    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`

    Sweden has created great problems for itself by removing parental authority. Linda Skugge said it in 2003 We are bringing up a generation of monsters, Roger Lord said it in 2005 “The children are embarrassing Sweden, in October after the fatal shooting of a teenager in Rödeby, many people said “Shoot another one and now we have a chorus criticising this piece.