Children living in hiding today and tomorrow
A seminar about health and human rights

Programme

Welcome
Per-Anders Rydelius, board member, the Solstickan Foundation 
Göran Bondjers, Dean & Director, Nordic School of Public Health

Refugee children living in hiding: what do we know and what don’t we know?
Henry Ascher, paediatrician, assoc. professor, Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden

Children seeking asylum is a potentially vulnerable group, often with experiences of war, conflict and assaults. Refugee children living in hiding are invisible in many senses and research about their situation is scarce. Most research is done on undocumented children but what do we know about the situation for children in families?

"Why can't I go to school? Is it dangerous?" Examples and experiences from a helpline for children staying in Sweden without leave to remain
Sanna Vestin, journalist and editor of www.utanpapper.nu, Save the Children's website for undocumented children, Sweden

For two years, Save the Children Sweden ran a helpline for undocumented children. Several hundreds of children and related adults made contact. Their questions tell a lot about the everyday dilemmas of a life in hiding, but also about new dilemmas of the welfare state and its employees.

Mental health among children seeking asylum in a Scandinavian and international perspective
Signe Smith Nielsen, Cand.scient.san.publ., Phd student, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Children seeking asylum constitite one of the most vulnerable groups in society. There is a high prevalence of psychopathology among these children, and much of this can be ascribed to the psycho-social strains that are linked to the migration process, the refugee and immigrants status and the conditions in the often protracted asylum phase. It is critical that the asylum systems in Western host countries seek to protect children in accordance with the Convention of the Rights of the Child and other international rights documents.

What are the connections between health and human rights? How can human rights help?
Professor Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health (2002-2008), Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

When we talk about human rights we tend to think of the freedoms of speech and religion, the right to a fair trial, the prohibition against torture, and so on. We usually neglect other equally important fundamental human rights, including the right to the highest attainable standard of health. But what are the connections between health and human rights? What role does human rights have in the struggle to establish equitable health systems that are accessible to all?

Children, human rights and the asylum process 
Dr Charles Watters, Director of the European Centre for Migration and Social Care, University of Kent, UK

There are numerous conventions and policies ostensibly aimed at protecting children and ensuring that they have access to asylum procedures. It is useful to examine the extent to which states sign up to the various conventions and enshrine concerns about children’s welfare in national laws. However, there are often acute tensions between concerns relating the welfare of children and concerns regarding immigration control. To what extent and in what circumstances do the latter trump welfare concerns? What is the gap between conventions and policies and actual practice ‘on the ground’ in industrialised countries and how can that gap be closed through the work of practitioners and researchers?

Panel discussion: How can we support children living in hiding?
Chair: Professor emeritus Ingemar Kjellmer, paediatrician, Gothenburg, Sweden 
Participants: Speakers and Gunlög Hedtjärn, psychologist Child and adolescent psychiatry, Gothenburg, Sweden

Can we prevent children from having to hide? How do we offer support to those who are or have been in hiding?