Archbishop to hold meeting on children’s rights and courage to face life

Children and young people will be the focus of the Archbishop’s meeting in November. Photo: Magnus Aronson/IKON

On 16–17 November 2012, Archbishop Anders Wejryd will be holding a strength-mustering meeting under the heading of Children and young people – the Archbishop’s meeting 2012 in Uppsala. Starting from this meeting, the Church of Sweden wants to identify new opportunities to work for children’s rights along with other actors in Swedish society.

Participants will include Swedish Minister for Children and the Elderly Maria Larsson, Ombudsman for Children Fredrik Malmberg, Secretary-General of BRIS [Children's Rights in Society] Kattis Ahlström, and the Swedish National Agency for Education’s Director-General Anna Ekström. Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria will also be attending.

The starting point for Children and young people – the Archbishop’s meeting 2012 is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that every child has the right to life, health and development, including spiritual development. Sweden has undertaken to comply with the Convention, but there are shortcomings in both legislation and practice. For this reason, the Church of Sweden and many other organisations are working towards the Convention becoming law.

“Christian faith is about having the courage to face life, and we want to strengthen each child’s desire to live. The whole of society is responsible for ensuring that children’s rights are observed. This is why the Church of Sweden wants to work with others to put the demands of the Convention into practice,” says Archbishop Anders Wejryd.

The work of the Church of Sweden with children and young people is widespread, involving several professional groups and many volunteers. At the Children and Young People meeting, the Archbishop also wishes to highlight this important work.

“I hope that it will be a forum where people can gather strength, as well as the starting point strategically for our future work in the Church,” he says.

Children and young people – the Archbishop’s meeting 2012 is structured around three themes taken from the Convention:

• Children’s strength and ability reflects the Convention’s basic idea of the child as the central figure in its own life.
• Children in vulnerable situations builds on the fact that children’s rights are violated through violence, abuse and neglect.
• How should the child’s right to spiritual development be understood in relation to the      child’s right to freedom of thought and religion? To criticism of religion? To well-being, meaning and hope?

The programme consists of three rounds of elective seminars and a joint panel programme with actor and writer Morgan Alling and vicar Annika Borg as moderators. Both days will conclude with a service in Uppsala Cathedral.

Project manager Maria Södling is expecting that Children and young people – the Archbishop’s meeting 2012 will bring together around 1,100 people at the Uppsala Konsert & Kongress facility, located in central Uppsala. Two main groups have been invited: firstly, representatives of public authorities, children’s rights organisations and other organisations, and secondly, employees and elected representatives from the Church of Sweden’s parishes and dioceses. In an initial stage, only those who have received a direct invitation will be able to register to attend. The remaining places will be released in September, and interested parties will be able to register via the meeting’s website.

Press contact: press secretary to the Archbishop Ewa Almqvist, ewa.almqvist@svenskakyrkan.se, tel. +46 (0)705-469677. Duty press service during holiday periods and outside office hours: +46 (0)18-169475