A voice for children: Speaking out as their ombudsman. By Malfrid Grude Flekkøy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 1991, 249 pp.
| Published date | 01 May 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130214 |
| Author | R. Padmini |
| Date | 01 May 1993 |
180
Book
Reviews
Those wishing to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals and organizations in
Africa operate will need to look beyond this volume’s summaries. David Leonard’s
African
Successes
(University of California Press), or Peter Blunt and Merrick Jones’
Managing Organi-
sations
in
Africa
(Walter de Gruyter) are good places to start.
This report and others emanating from the World Bank make one thing clear: The old
multilateral aid ‘game’ in which the Bank ‘did’ capital aid and UN agencies ‘did’ technical
assistance is over. This is probably not a bad thing, given that the
UN
system’s main contribu-
tion to technical assistance in the last
30
years has been to promote a conceptual vacuum
and a practice based on platitudes.
DAVID
HULME
Institute for Development Policy and Managenient
University
of
Manchester
A VOICE FOR CHILDREN: SPEAKING OUT AS THEIR OMBUDSMAN
By
Malfrid
Grude
Flekkey
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 199 1,249 pp.
A Voice for Children
mirrors the growing concern of the last few decades with children both
as potential adults and as persons in themselves. The same concern led to the adoption of
the Convention on the rights of the Child in 1989 and the Declaration of the Goals for
Children at the World Summit for Children the following year. Having successfully piloted
these momentous events, advocates for children have now to turn their attention to their
implementation and monitoring. As in the case
of
the environment, the thinking needs to
be global and the action local. Malfrid Flekksy’s account of her experience as the first,
and for seven years, the only, Ombudsman for Children, offers valuable insights into the
concept, procedures and possibilities of the system for these purposes.
Overall, the book is very interesting and a valuable guide for all interested in child and
human rights. One is also struck by the author’s remark that while individual cases may
seem unimportant, ‘their solutions make a difference to children and they all reflect, in different
ways, how the needs of children and their right to equality are too easily set aside or forgotten’.
Unfortunately, the reader might however get somewhat lost in the details, and apparent trivial
ones at that, of Chapter three. The author recognizes that it is a long chapter, but has left
it at that. It might have been more enjoyable and edifying to have organized the chapter
more around discussion of the themes and to have used a few specific instances as illustrations.
Another incident is revealing in that children’s safety does not appear as important as
private property-a potential gas spill that was considered dangerous enough to forbid a
harbour for private boats was not a deterrent to the continuation of a school in that area,
nor to the increase of its student strength that was permitted subsequently! Unfortunately,
the Ombudsman’s reporting of the incident in the book is almost casual, and the issue is
not highlighted. Other important questions on the rights of children (pupils) versus the rights
of
teachers are also raised as in the example of children being expelled for unruly behaviour-
the question is whether the behaviour of the teacher or the underlying problems of the student
were investigated.
The book discusses various alternative social service and child welfare Acts under different
systems and this could be of practical help to other countries. As Ms Flekksy points out,
the institution
of
Ombudsman
for
Children in Norway has been moulded to fit the genus
and the needs of Norway. While lessons can be learnt from this unique experience, the institu-
tion itself cannot be transplanted without adaptation. Moreover, where developing countries
are concerned, both the viability of the concept
of
an Ombudsman and the focus of that
office may need to be carefully assessed before steps are taken to imitate the Norwegian
experience.
However, even if the full flowering of the Ombudsman idea is not feasible in many countries
yet, the model might be an inspiration, or at least a challenge. As the author points out,
‘there are two streams of opinion about the use of national legislation’. One is that there
is
no point if the implementation of a legislated right
is
infeasible; the other is that ‘legislation
may have value, even though it may take years to fulfil the right’. This second view is particularly
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