Barnet som medborgare – En analys av förutsättningarna för att skapa ett index över barns medborgerliga och politiska rättigheter

A pilot study that explores the possibility of measuring the civil and political rights of children in Sweden and, at the same time, attempts to create indicators and variables to measure these rights. This study is a preliminary step towards the development of a national index measuring the civil and political rights of children which would furnish cross-country comparisons at municipal level. The long-term goal of Save the Children’s work in this area is to create additional tools for monitoring and measuring the practical implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Save the Children has developed similar indexes in the past, e.g. on children’s right to education and health and their economic vulnerability. This new index attempts to operationalise children’s civil and political rights as provided in Articles 7-8 and 12-17 of the UNCRC, bearing in mind the four core principles of the Convention: Art. 2 (Non-discrimination); Art. 3 (devotion to the best interest of the child); Art. 6 (the right to life survival and development);and Art 12 (respect for the views of the child).