https://www.mdu.se/

The study aims to, based on a critical discourse analysis, study the judgments in administrative courts in LVU cases in order to identify the occurrence of the concept of the best interests of the child and the significance it is given. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that childrens’s rights are safeguarded, that children must have the opportunity to participate in decisions that affect them and that in all measures concerning children, the child´s best interests must come first. On January 1, 2020, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child became Swedish law with the aim of further clarifying the rights of the child and ensuring that they are safeguarded and taken into account by law enforcement. Incorporation of the Convention on Rights of the Child is described as having contributed to a more children’s right-based approach in all public activities, which it intends to study and review. Previous research in the field shows that children's participation and decision-making processes that concern them are often deficient, despite the fact that many children wish for increased participation. Previous research has also been able to demonstrate that, however, there are no general guidelines for how the legal objective of the best interests of the child should be achieved in legal processes. The critical discourse analysis used to analyze 10 of the administrative court's judgments in LVU cases has been able to demonstrate that the administrative court does not use the concept of the child's best interest in its assessments and decisions at all.