| Summary: | “You only try to stay in the real world”, “you get strange, cold and off”. These are citations from childrens own stories about being in detention and isolated. Approximately 10 000 people are detained annually in Sweden with and without restrictions and several of these are children, persons between 15 - 17 years old. Sweden has ratified the ’Convention on the Rights of the Child’ up to a lot of criticism against the way Sweden detains children. The law that is applied to adults in the case of detention also applies to children. Although, there are some special laws that only apply to detention of children, 24 chapter 4 § RB and 23 § LUL. If due to the childs age it may be feared that the detention would bring serious harm to the child, detention may only occur if it is clear that adequate supervision cannot be arranged. It is also required that there are extraordinary reasons for detention. There is a special group of children who have certain disabilities, children with neuropsychiatric disorders. Problems can occur when these children are detained and isolated. According to Swedish national law, detention of children can take place when the basic conditions in the 24 chapter 1 § RB are fulfilled, when it is clear that adequate supervision cannot be arranged in accordance with 24 chapter 4 § RB. Detention of children may only occur under extraordinary reasons, 23 § LUL. However extraordinary reasons are interpreted in different ways, this leads to children being arrested more often than in exceptional cases. In case of detention of children with neuropsychiatric disorders the disorder may be taken into consideration in the proportionality assessment by some judges and some judges will not. The stay in detention can affect children with neuropsychiatric disorders in different ways. They can develop phobias, self-harm, more anxiety, nervousness and depression. As there are several children with neuropsychiatric disorders who also have an increased risk of developing other psychological problems, this group of children is more likely to be affected by detention. In conclusion, these Swedish laws do not meet the requirements set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, neither practical nor theoretical.
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