‘Rightificating’ Coercion – A Critical Perspective on the Transformation of State-Driven Coercive Care

Abstract

During the last decade there has been a growing trend to give the child’s rights perspective a prominent role within the Swedish legal system. Simultaneously, one of the most central notions of the Swedish welfare state is the idea of the state having a certain responsibility to protect children. This article explores the tensions and contradictions between the child’s rights perspective and the collectivistic discourse on state protection in the transformation of state-driven coercive care in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Based on a textual analysis on policy documents, it illustrates a complex process, which both endorses and resists the transformation process. Findings show how emphasis on the child’s right to protection is used, not to strengthen the role of the child towards the state, but to legitimise a strengthened position of the state towards the child, decorated in the terminology of a child’s rights perspective. Further, it suggests that an individualisation of problem formulation opens up space for an extended coercion and that children’s access to individual rights is conditional and dependent on an active and capable individual.