by Bjo Ern
International Lawyers have confirmed that the primary function of European Child Welfare services is to support and assist parents in raising their Children. States have no right to permanently remove Children from their families without compelling reasons in extraordinary circumstances. The cute boy in this picture is Tyler. He is an American citizen who was born in Norway. He was permanently removed from his Mother Amy Jakobsen by the Norwegian Child Welfare Service in July 2013. They were concerned that he was still primarily breastfed at age 1,5 years and that his weight back then was only 9,6 kg and not 10 kg (which is actually nothing unusual).
The Norwegian Child Welfare Service did not support the Mother as they were supposed to. They didn’t even offer any advice on how to improve the nutrition. Instead they removed the Child immediately. The case documents state that the authorities were also concerned that the Mother could take the boy back home to America. Therefore they took parental and visitation rights away from her. They also changed the name of the boy twice to make sure that the mother would not be able to locate him again.
Which law justifies these cruel actions against this Mother and her Child? Tyler was born into a stable home. There was no compelling reason to remove him from his Mother. There were no extraordinary circumstances such as sexual abuse or domestic violence which would have justified the removal.
And it must be clearly added here that a removal based on compelling reasons in extraordinary situations must always be regarded as a temporary measure. European Child Welfare Services are supposed to work hard with those families involved to improve their circumstances so that a removed Child can be returned as quickly as possible. But none of that was ever even considered to be an option in Amy’s case.
If the case started in 2013, it is likely to be at District Court or Appeal Court level right now? Any further information?