The Impact of the UNCRC During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Sweden

Abstract: Sweden has expressed a commitment to children’s rights in the last few decades, signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1990 and eventually incorporating it as Swedish law in 2020. With the Covid-19 pandemic coinciding with the convention as law and drastically changing the lives of many, including those of children and youth, what role do children’s rights play during a global pandemic? This thesis is interested in this question and has explored the impact of the UNCRC as law in Sweden during the pandemic. The impact has been measured through an examination of the implementation of the best interest principle in decisions. The case study for this thesis is the nationwide upper secondary school shut down, where I have examined national decisions issued by the Swedish Public Health Agency (FHM) and municipal decisions issued by Malmö municipality starting from March 2020 until June 2021. Methodologically, I have used a deductive top-down approach and a qualitative content analysis with closed coding. Theoretically, I have engaged with Lawrence M. Friedman’s concepts of direct impact, use, semi-use, and non-use of a law. These theoretical concepts were applied to the best interest principle, forming its different applications. The theoretical concepts of instrumental and symbolic law were also employed as part of the theoretical body. The results showed that the right to education, mental health, and situations of vulnerability were briefly considered in some decisions, however the analysis pointed towards the non-use of the best interest principle in the decisions, thus concluding that the UNCRC occupies a symbolic law status.