by Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of European Parliament
Believe in victory and victory shall believe in you.
If a parent beats up his child it means a huge problem for the Barnevernet, but if a Barnevernet’s officer or an employee of a social institution beats up a child nothing happens. Ranks of parents whose children were and/or are beaten up and raped in Norwegian institutions decided to speak.
Another taboo in Norway is off. And that is the situation in Norwegian institutions where children and teenagers with disciplinary and family issues are being temporarily placed. Unfortunately, instead of help these institutions cause children unpleasant experiences and traumas for the rest of their lives. Children are repeatedly beaten up and some of them are even molested or raped.
Until recently it applied that what happened in institutions could not be investigated. Even though parents repeatedly complained about the terrible practices in institutions, they were mostly ignored and told that it was not possible. The police usually questioned employees of given social institution and then dropped the case.
Lawyers, psychologists and activists fighting with the Barnevernet started to systematically collect the cases showing the doubts about the Norwegian institutional care. They collected many cases and proves showing how children were brutally treated in institutions and in foster cares (for more details see the article from the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten from 2011. Parents now ask for those cases to be opened and investigated again.
Read the whole article in Tomáš Zdechovský’s blog
About the physical punishment in one institution in the document of the Norwegian television:
https://tv.nrk.no/serie/brennpunkt/mdup11000214/04-03-2014#
Announcement about the closure of one institution because of the physical violence:
https://www.fylkesmannen.no/Oslo-og-Akershus/Barn-og-foreldre/Barnevern/Varsel-om-palegg-om-nedlegging-av-driften-ved-korttidsavdelingen-ved-MK/
Articles about the violence and abuse of children in institutions and foster homes:
http://www.barnasrett.no/fosterforeldre_tiltalt.htm
An article from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladen called “Foster care is not the best”:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2016/04/28/kultur/meninger/debatt/barnevern/fosterhjem/44023033/
Another article of the newspaper Aftenposten about a study describing those 42 punished employees of the Barnevernet who allowed 52 children to be abused. The study was necessary because Norwegian authorities do not keep statistics about “foster parents abusing children”.
http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/52-barnevernsbarn-utsatt-for-grove-overgrep-172168b.html
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