The Minister of Children and Equality's deceptive seminar about the CPS Barnevernet


Jan-Aage Torp:
Norway's deceptive "Barnevernet"-seminar
Christian Coalition World, 17 October 2018

"- Norway is attempting to deceive the world about «Barnevernet», states Einar C. Salvesen, psychology specialist and initiator of KIB, the nation´s only professional network of psychologists, lawyers and other specialists within the field of CPS, that is actually presenting a concerted and longterm criticism of the scandalous «Child Protection Services»."

"The outrage of Salvesen and numerous other professionals that have contacted KKN this week is directed at the seminar that Ms. Linda Hofstad Helleland, the Minister of Children & Equality in Norway´s government, is having in Oslo on Monday. October 22nd about «Barnevernet viewed with International Eyes»."

"A SETUP!
    - All the speakers are pro-Barnevernet. This is a setup to mislead and decieve the international opinion. and KIB wants the world to know that this is the case! maintains the reknown psychology specialist Einar C. Salvesen in a conversation with KKN."


The seminar admits only invited guests. Some CPS critics have rung the Ministry asking whether they can attend, but either been turned away, or, in the case of KIB, been told that just 3 of their representatives are allowed to attend.

Perhaps we could say that everything about this seminar shows Minister Helleland, the CPS, and our government up as nervous, and completely helpless to do anything effective to get the CPS Barnevernet into a better shape.
    My best guess is that she has invited the press – to refer to a "very successful seminar from which a lot was learned which will be of great value in the further development of Barnevernet"?

  

_________________
Hjemmeside http://www.mhskanland.net

    

Olav Bergo:
The child- and equality-ministry's obfuscating seminar on Monday

(Translation: Marianne Haslev Skånland)


Government minister Linda Hofstad Helleland (Conservative) has invited people to a seminar this coming Monday, about the criticism abroad of Norwegian Barnevern.

The minister for children has not invited Barnevernet's sharpest international critics to speak. Nor has she invited the sharpest national critics, people like Einar Salvesen, Gro Hillestad Thune, Ragnhild Elisabeth Pettersen, Sverre Kvilhaug, Rune Fardal or Marianne Skånland. Or Trudy Lobben, with her recent experience of meeting the government's eight lawyers in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Maybe Trudy wins after all, despite the state's superior power.

Merethe Løland, the leader of Organisasjonen av barnevernsforeldre ('the Organisation of Barnevern parents'), is going to talk about the perspective of parents in child protection cases. Good. But the organisation is practically invisible in the public debate about Barnevernet.

The organisation Kvalitet i barnevernet (KIB – 'Quality in Barnevernet'), which in 2015 sent a thorough, factually based 'message of concern' about Norwegian child protection to the Ministry, one which has 260 professionals behind it, has not been invited to speak at the seminar. They are allowed to listen; that is, altogether three participants from KIB are. Many families, who have a lot to relate about why there is a storm of criticism against Norwegian Barnevern, have been met with refusal.

The Ministry allows a couple of critical voices to participate: BBC journalist Tim Whewell, the author Maciej Czarnecki and lawyer Thea Totland. They are sort of wrapped in by speakers like Bufdir leader Mari Trommald and youngsters from Forandringsfabrikken ("The Change Factory"). Thea Totland is the only critical voice among the five participants in the final panel debate.

Minister Helleland's seminar disregards and makes invisible the most incisive critics in Norway and abroad, it goes in for an incorrect picture of the critics and of the content of their criticism. Those who apply such methods, normally leave political life in dishonour. Brave politicians meet with their most serious critics, listen with interest and attention to what they say, and become wiser.

Politicians who isolate themselves from their critics and resist changing whatever does not function, can survive for a time. But sooner or later people's patience with a CPS which obviously does not work, reaches an end.

We need a children’s minister who focuses her attention on the grim realities, who listens to the critical voices of children and their parents, and puts things in order in Barnevernet. We do not need a minister who complains about the fury of children and their parents, but disregards and does nothing about the reasons for their fury.


*

The Norwegian version of the article was originally posted on facebook, and is also found in the Norwegian thread about the seminar.


  

_________________
Hjemmeside http://www.mhskanland.net

  

Click on "nett-tv" here to see the whole seminar.

The Ministry of Children and Equality:
Seminar om norsk barnevern sett med internasjonale øyne
(Seminar about Norwegian child protection seen with international eyes)
The Government, 17 – 23 October 2018

  

_________________
Hjemmeside http://www.mhskanland.net

    

Merethe Løland, Organisasjonen for barnevernsforeldre (OBF):
Speech held at The Ministry of Children and Equality's seminar "Norsk barnevern sett med internasjonale øyne" (Norwegian child protection seen with international eyes) in Oslo 22 October 2018
OBF's website, 26 October 2018

"Bare se på Trude Lobben, hun og hennes advokat mot STATEN NORGE med sine 9 advokater og rådgivere, i tillegg en hel delegasjon på «studietur». Så har dere Merethe Løland, her i dag på vegne av alle barnevernkritiske foreldre, mot alle dere som skryter hemningsløst av det flotte barnevernet vi har som redder så mange barn.
    Vi finner igjen ubalansen gjennom hele behandlingen i fylkesnemnda, mor og far med sin altfor under betalte advokat mot hele barnevernet, en mye bedre betalt kommune advokat, en konkluderende og skråsikker sakkyndig, en talsperson, alle de innhentede opplysningene dere verken kan tyde eller har bruk for men som dere samler inn bare fordi det kan hende dere finner noe grums, svært godt betalte og selvsagt helt uavhengige fosterforeldre og selvsagt nemndleder. Alle skjønt enige om at barnet bør tas fra sine foreldre og vokse opp blant fremmede i et fosterhjem, totalt avskåret fra familie og nettverk."
(Just look at at Trude Lobben, she and her lawyer against the state of Norway, with their 9 lawyers and advisors, in addition to a whole delegation on a "study tour". And then you have Merethe Løland, leader for OfB here today, on behalf of all Barnevern-critical parents, who is supposed to meet, then, all of you who boast without restraint of the fantastic Barnevernet we have, which rescues so many children.
    We find this imbalance again in Fylkesnemnda (the county board). Mother and father, with their all too poorly paid lawyer against the whole of Barnevernet, a much better paid municipal lawyer, a concluding and cocksure expert, a spokesperson, all the elicited information nobody can either interpret or put to any use but which has been collected just to be on the safe side. Very well paid and of course completely independent foster parents, and of course the leader of the county board. They agree completely that the best for this child is to be deprived of its parents and grow up in a foster home with strangers, totally cut off from family and network.)

"Når barnevernet stadig driver og tolker loven og betydningen av barnets beste slik det passer dem, er det da så rart at foreldre landet over raser, hyler ut i media eller rømmer til utlandet? Når rettssikkerheten til barn og foreldre er så dårlig som den er, kan dere ikke forsøke å forstå hvorfor utenlandske medier blir kontaktet som et siste rop om hjelp. Det er ikke uten grunn at 9 saker har havnet i EMD.
(When Barnevernet all the time keeps interpreting the law and the meaning of "the child's best interest" as they see fit, is it any wonder that parents all around the country are furious, scream to the media or flee abroad with their children? When security under the rule of law for children and parents is as bad as it is, can you not try to understand why foreign media are contacted as a last cry for help? It is not completely without reason that 9 cases have got as far as to the ECtHR.)

Barnets beste ja, sett med hvem sine øyne og fra hvem sitt ståsted? Når mor og far går fra hverandre, er det viktig at barnet får god kontakt med begge foreldrene, til og med kanskje delt bosted. Men når det er snakk om omsorgsovertakelse, da må barnet skjermes til de grader, fordi barnet ikke evner å ha flere omsorgsbaser. Hvis barnet/ungdommen vil se sine foreldre mer er de enten blitt manipulert eller ikke i stand til å se konsekvensen av det. Dersom barnet ikke ønsker kontakt, da er det viktig å lytte til barnet. Er det rart vi reagerer?"
(Oh yes, the best interest of the child, seen through whose eyes, from whose point of view? If mother and father split up, it is important that the child should have good contact with both parents, maybe even two places to live. But when the question is taking into care, the child must be so extremely protected because the child is suddenly not able to have several care bases. If the child/youth wants to see its parents more, they have either been manipulated or do not see the consequences of their wishes. If they do not want contact, then it is important to listen to the child. Is it any wonder we react?)

  

_________________
Hjemmeside http://www.mhskanland.net

  

Utfordret statsråden om barnevern
Se video av Marit Skivenes presentere forskning på seminar med barneminister Linda Helleland.
https://www.uib.no/admorg/121485/utfordret-statsråden-om-barnevern
(Challenged the minister about Barnevern
Watch the video of Marit Skivenes in her presentation of research at seminar with children's minister Linda Helleland.)
University of Bergen, 29 October 2018

"Norsk barnevern fungerer godt om man sammenligner med andre land, og Norge er høyt rangert på internasjonale indekser over barnevelferd. Likevel er det klart forbedringspotensial når det kommer til utdanning, involvering av barn og regulering av skjønnsutøvelsen.
    Dette var hovedbudskapet til professor Marit Skivenes under et seminar arrangert av Barne- og likestillingsdepartementet i lys av kritikken mot norsk barnevern i norske og internasjonale medier (se video lenger ned i saken).
    Barneminister Linda Helleland deltok sammen med en rekke andre viktige beslutningstakere og interesseorganisasjoner fra barnevernsfeltet, i tillegg til et stort pressekorps."
(Norwegian CPS functions well if compared to other countries, and Norway is highly ranked on international indexes concerning child welfare. Still there is a clear potential for improvement as regards education, involvement of children and regulating the exercise of assessment.
    This was the main message of professor Marit Skivenes during a seminar arranged by the Ministry of Children and Equality in the light of the criticism against Norwegian CPS in Norwegian and internationa media (cf the video further down).
    Children's minister Linda Helleland took part together with a number of other important decision makers and interest organisations from the CPS field, in addition to a large press corps.)

"Hun påpekte at det norske barnevernet fungerer godt om man sammenligner med andre land, og at Norge ligger godt an når det gjelder rettssikkerhet."
(She pointed out that Norwegian CPS functions well if compared to other countries, and that Norway is well placed as regards security under the rule of law.)

Marit Skivenes' speech was hardly a challenge to the minister. As expected from her, she found that Norwegian Barnevern is very fine, and her recommendations for more education etc are just what the Ministry wants. It all goes to cementing the practice that is already well established.
    Press people may have been present in large numbers; there has, however, been little to hear/see from them in the press, e.g of the few hard and clear objections there really were at the seminar, such as Merethe Løland's speech.
    There are likely several thousand families which would challenge Skivenes' view of what their security under the rule of law is and has been. Løland was right in saying that this seminar hardly reflected the amount of very serious criticism there actually is.
  
  

_________________
Hjemmeside http://www.mhskanland.net