Children Claiming Spaces. Child rights perspectives and the child's right to be heard in the context of land use in Gállok, Sweden
(2026) MRSM15 20261Human Rights Studies
- Abstract
- The decision-making process on land use in Gállok between 2013 and 2022
represents an intense political and societal debate on mining, ‘green transition’, Indigeneity and environmentalism. Children have expressed their views throughout this process and have based on article 12(1) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child a right to so. However, whether children are heard and to what extent their rights and perspectives are considered remains unclear. This thesis thus aims to answer the question How and to what extent are children’s rights, particularly their right to be heard and to have their views taken into account, reflected in political and societal debates on land use in Sápmi in Sweden?
The purpose of this qualitative study is to... (More) - The decision-making process on land use in Gállok between 2013 and 2022
represents an intense political and societal debate on mining, ‘green transition’, Indigeneity and environmentalism. Children have expressed their views throughout this process and have based on article 12(1) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child a right to so. However, whether children are heard and to what extent their rights and perspectives are considered remains unclear. This thesis thus aims to answer the question How and to what extent are children’s rights, particularly their right to be heard and to have their views taken into account, reflected in political and societal debates on land use in Sápmi in Sweden?
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the substance of article 12(1), how it is taken into consideration and how it interplays with Indigenous children’s rights and child rights perspectives on environmental issues. Additionally, I offer a child rights perspective on one of Sweden’s most debated human rights issues of the past decade.
Policy documents, newspaper articles and social media entries of youth-led organizations were analyzed applying a critical policy analysis. Methodological decisions and the interpretation of findings were led by the critical theoretical childism approach of John Wall.
The findings show that neither article 12(1) nor other children’s rights are considered in the decision-making process for Gállok although children are considered to be affected by the decision. However, children claim spaces they are denied and try to contribute to the debate beyond measures of protest which leads to the question whether the implementation of article 12(1) would allow them to participate in a meaningful way or whether it is political structures itself that would have to change for children to become active members of society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9245164
- author
- Berg, Lena Katharina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MRSM15 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Gállok, Child Rights Perspectives, Article 12(1), Convention on the Rights of the Child, Childism, Critical Policy Analysis
- language
- English
- id
- 9245164
- date added to LUP
- 2026-08-03 14:53:41
- date last changed
- 2026-08-03 14:53:41
@misc{9245164,
abstract = {{The decision-making process on land use in Gállok between 2013 and 2022
represents an intense political and societal debate on mining, ‘green transition’, Indigeneity and environmentalism. Children have expressed their views throughout this process and have based on article 12(1) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child a right to so. However, whether children are heard and to what extent their rights and perspectives are considered remains unclear. This thesis thus aims to answer the question How and to what extent are children’s rights, particularly their right to be heard and to have their views taken into account, reflected in political and societal debates on land use in Sápmi in Sweden?
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the substance of article 12(1), how it is taken into consideration and how it interplays with Indigenous children’s rights and child rights perspectives on environmental issues. Additionally, I offer a child rights perspective on one of Sweden’s most debated human rights issues of the past decade.
Policy documents, newspaper articles and social media entries of youth-led organizations were analyzed applying a critical policy analysis. Methodological decisions and the interpretation of findings were led by the critical theoretical childism approach of John Wall.
The findings show that neither article 12(1) nor other children’s rights are considered in the decision-making process for Gállok although children are considered to be affected by the decision. However, children claim spaces they are denied and try to contribute to the debate beyond measures of protest which leads to the question whether the implementation of article 12(1) would allow them to participate in a meaningful way or whether it is political structures itself that would have to change for children to become active members of society.}},
author = {{Berg, Lena Katharina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Children Claiming Spaces. Child rights perspectives and the child's right to be heard in the context of land use in Gállok, Sweden}},
year = {{2026}},
}