Blog

About the Ombuds Office

«Family is not always a private matter»

18 December 2023
Children’s rights are being violated? Even in a democratic, progressive country governed by the rule of law like Switzerland? We truly wish that it wasn’t the case. Yet attempts to consistently implement children’s rights are often frustrated by misguided notions of protection on the part of the individuals and authorities responsible for child welfare. Our Managing Director Irène Inderbitzin spoke to ElternMagazin Fritz+Fränzi, the Swiss magazine for parents, about the concerns that children continue to report to us at the national Ombuds Office for Children’s Rights. Among other things, Irène sheds light on how we offer advice and consultation, the tasks that the Ombuds Office performs and the root causes of these types of violations of children’s rights.
Expertise

Our demand for child-friendly hearings

19 November 2023

The participation of the child is likewise the focus of the latest edition of “undKinder” magazine from the Marie Meierhofer Institute for the Child (MMI). Our guest article takes a detailed and comprehensive look at the topic from a legal perspective. We tackle the most important points of the article “Schutz des Kindes durch Partizipation” (Protecting children through participation) and present them to you over the course of three blog articles.

Expertise

Children are complete people

19 November 2023

«Kinder sind ganze Menschen» – Children are complete people – is the title of the latest edition of “undKinder” magazine from the Marie Meierhofer Institute for the Child (MMI). The edition is devoted to the topic of participation and we have contributed a guest article titled “Protecting children through participation”. In our previous blog post we discussed participation as a concept and process. This time, we would like to focus on the best interest of the child.

About the Ombuds Office

For us, every day is Children's Rights Day

24 November 2022

Dilan has known for a long time that he wants to live with his father. Since his parents separated, he has lived with his mother and her boyfriend. There are constant arguments at home, the new partner has rejected Dilan and has acted violently. Often, lots of alcohol is involved. Caught in the middle is Dilan, and he is only 9 years old. How can he assert himself against his mother’s wishes and move in with his father?