Human Rights constructiveness
- in Finnish Youth Shelters
Julia Silverio Human Rights Bachelor’s thesis, 15 creditsSpring Semester, 2020 Supervisor: Jon Wittrock
ABSTRACT
The motivation for the thesis was to discover whether Finnish Red Cross Youth Shelters can be evaluated and developed from legal and moral standpoints, such as the Human Rights. A special focus is put on how the international law gets interpreted and practiced in a local (Youth Shelter) context. Findings from the collected data are based on the experiences of the Youth Shleter’s employees and volunteers through workshop discussions, surveys and interviews. This observational work done within the thesis is an initial mapping of how “things are at the moment”. Data is analysed with The New Legal Realism (NLR) theory, which main focus is to study law’s context-based interpretations and mobility ie. how international law creates meanings in a local setting. (Dagan & Kreitner, 2018; 534.) The value of the findings will increase through new ideas, support measures and a better identification of the needs of employees and volunteers arising from the findings. The observational work is inspired by the idea that if someone has an obligation to ensure rights, they are also entitled to get support with knowledge of how to implement them properly.
Keywords: Youth Work, Human Rights implementation, Social Services, New Legal Realism,
Empirical Study
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract... 1
List of abbreviations ... 4
1. Introduction ... 5
1.1. Relevance of the study & Research question(s):... 6
2. Background ... 7
2.1. Youth Shelters... 7
2.2. International law merged into national legislation and local obligations ... 8
2.2.1. Legal Human Rights related to obligations at Youth Shelters ... 9
2.2.2. Legal status of volunteers and employees ... 10
2.2.3. Youth Shelters’ Self-Monitoring Plan ... 10
2.3. Implementing the Convention of the Rights of the Child in Youth Work ... 12
3. Theoretical framework - Research design ... 13
3.1. New Legal Realism Theory... 13
3.1.2. Five characters of NLR... 15
3.2. Operationalization of the theory ... 16
4. Methodology ... 17
4.1. Case selection... 19
4.2. Choice of data ... 19
4.3. Choice of methods... 20
4.4. Workshops and interviews... 20
4.5. Survey ... 22
4.6. Ethical Rewiev………..………….23
4.7. Limitations ... 23
5. Results and discussion... 23
5.1. Interpretation of The Convention on The Rights of the Child ... 26
5.1.1. Bottom-up approach - diversity in the study ground ... 26
5.1.2. Translating social science into law (or vice-versa?) ... 28
5.2. Application of the Convention of the Rights of the Child ... 28
5.2.1. Case by case mentality - working against discrimination ... 29
5.2.2. Accessibility concerns... 30
5.2.3. Youth Shelters’ everyday language ... 32
5.2.4. Civil and Political participation ... 33
5.2.6. Employees/Volunteers role as a mediator between youth, the family and CRC... 36
5.2.7. Effective legal action & mobility of law requires training ... 36
6. Conclusion ... 38
Bibliography ... 40
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CRC = The Convention of the Rights of the Child FRC = The Finnish Red Cross
EU = European Union CoE = The Council of Europe
IL = International Law HR = Human Rights SMP = Self-Monitoring Plan
1. INTRODUCTION
As NLR scholar Mertz (2016; 237-40) puts it “our understanding of law must be grounded in the experiences of those who are ruled by the law”.
Human Rights (HR) exist in many different “natures”, they can serve as moral rights and on the other hand they also have social, political and legal value. HR are seen as moral standards by the general public, which are deeply embedded in the contemporary politics and law internationally, regionally and domestically. (Etson, 2018; 1). While it is important to see human rights as minimum standard, it is however equally important to ensure their
implementation.
State is the primary duty-bearer of the domestic implementation of international human rights treaties. Additionally social institutions and civil society carry an important role, which they can use to help HR realization through norms-, frames- and implementing certain type of HR friendly behavior. Localized non-State actors often enjoy legitimacy and authority, due to their local and cultural embeddedness, which allows them to effectively implement and communicate about HR in a culturally appropriate way. (Fraser, 2019; 974-5.)
There is little or even missing amount of research done about how HR work in practice. According to Sally (2006; 977) the enforcement of HR is lacking even if the legal codes are in place, which makes the effective implementation to be the major challenge of HR activists. As it is the way how HR are operationalized in practice which makes the difference in
people’s lives (Fraser, 2019; 984), intentions of the treaties are to be meaningfully practiced and not only effectively protected in theory. For successful implementation of HR, multi layered actions are very much needed (Fraser, 2019; 984 & 976).
In order to protect rights in question, scholars have created different context based bottom-up approaches yet keeping still culturally compatible (Fraser, 2019; 979). This study is therefore an empirical research based on the findings at The Finnish Red Cross Youth Emergency Houses. The observational work was inspired by the idea that if someone has an obligation to ensure rights, they are also entitled to get support with the knowledge of how to implement them properly. In the Youth Emergency House context, this means that when the employees and volunteers are expected to act in accordance with Human Rights conventions on an equal footing, they also have the right to receive proper support in order to understand how they would be able to carry out their obligations.
Methods used in this study are qualitative as well as quantitative in nature, they go hand in hand with the New Legal Realist theorizing which often focuses on empirical research with polyphonic methods (Suchman & Mertz, 2010; 560). Findings from the collected data will be based on the experiences of the Youth Shelters’ employees and volunteers through workshop discussions, collected surveys and interviews.
Based on the future findings, there will be different improvements done at Youth Shelters. Currently, the idea is to provide workers with needed trainings as well as to create Youth Shelters’ official equality plan, which may further help to adopt HR implementation in practice.
1.1.RELEVANCE AND AIM OF THE STUDY & RESEARCH QUESTION(S):
The motivation for the study is to discover whether Finnish Red Cross Youth Shelters can be evaluated and improved from legal and moral standpoints, such as the Human Rights. A special focus will put on how the international law gets interpreted and practiced in a local (Youth Shelters) context.
The aim of the study is to study how HR, specifically the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) is interpreted and applied in the Finnish Youth Shelters and further find out if there is additional support needed for proper interpretation and application of the CRC. The main research question is:
Is there any additional support needed in the interpretation and application of the CRC in the context of Youth Shelters?
Sub-research questions are:
1) How do the employees and volunteers interpret human rights in the context of Youth
Shelters?
2) How do they apply the Convention of the Rights of the Child in their work?
3) Is there any support needed to further interpret and apply the rights mentioned in the
the Convention of the Rights of the Child?
In order to answer these questions, data will be collected based on the experiences of the Youth Shelters’ employees and volunteers through workshop discussions, surveys and interviews.
2.BACKGROUND
The following section introduces the main themes, actors and legislations involved in order for the reader to understand the context in question.
2.1.YOUTH SHELTERS
Youth Shelters are non-governmentally run by The Finnish Red Cross and as such they are a unique concept in Europe. Youth Shelters activities are part of humanitarian work, which aims to give support for youth and their families facing crisis. The first house was established in Helsinki in 1990’s, after which four houses were founded in four cities in Southern Finland (Tampere, Turku, Vantaa and Espoo). (The Red Cross Office EU, 2020.)
Support provided at Youth Shelters is preventive work, which aims to increase youth's life management as well as support to find, increase and to use youth’s and his/her family’s resources. Services at Youth Shelters is based on cooperation between volunteers and employees. Overall aim at Youth Shelters is to provide a quick and easy access to lower the threshold. (Youth Shelters code of conduct, 2011.) The work done in Youth Shelters is complementary to the municipalities’ social services (Suurpää, 2020).
As mentioned before, the workload is separated between employees and volunteers, so that at Youth Shelters there is always one employee and at least one volunteer at site. During 2018, there were 521 volunteers and 37 employees involved (Youth Shelters; introduction material, 2020). At site, employees have the main responsibility of each case, whereas volunteers are focusing mainly on the well-being of the youth providing them with food, activities and social/mental support. (Youth Shelters’ website, 2020.)
Youth Shelters work is mainly sheltering youths during nights, when they are facing crisis and or are in need of a place to sleep. This service is free for the users. (Youth Shelters code of conduct, 2011). (Youth Shelters are open from 5pm to 10am, and works with walk-in mentality, meaning that youth can come anytime in between these hours. There are few rules in Youth Shelters; If the youth is underage their parents are always contacted when shelter is provided. Another important rule is that is that a person can be prohibited from entering if under the influence of intoxicants. (Youth Shelters website, 2020).
Alongside temporary sheltering, there are also other type of support offered such as,
all people involved, as well as being a part of nationwide Mental Health focused chat where discussion help is offered with other actors. (Youth Shelters website, 2020.) This thesis will mainly focus on the work done face to face with youth and their close ones.
2.2.INTERNATIONAL LAW MERGED INTO NATIONAL LEGISLATION AND LOCAL OBLIGATIONS
Public authorities must ensure the realization of the basic rights and human rights. -Article 22 of the Finnish Constitution (1999)
Human rights treaties ratified by Finland primarily oblige the state actors to implement the rights and freedoms defined in these treaties. According to Article 22 of the Finnish
Constitution (1999), public authorities must ensure the realization of basic rights and human rights. Human rights also create obligations for individuals with respect to the rights and freedoms of others. Human rights treaties can also be seen as a leading moral guide for nonpublic actors working with under age children, su as the shelters in question. In practice, this means raising awareness of, respecting and promoting the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Declaration and subsequent human rights treaties. (Ingram, 2017; 98.)
Finland has signed and ratified most of the relevant United Nations’ Human Rights treaties. Finland is also member of the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE), which makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and The European Social Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights binding. In terms of International law, Finnish legal system works in so called dualist way, meaning that all ratified
international treaties shall be implemented to the Finnish domestic legislation, and therefore they place obligations on all state actors. (Ojanen and Salminen, 2015; 400.)
When creating The New Constitution of Finland in 1999 special attention was given to Human Rights dogma, which entered into force in March 2000. The New Constitution aimed to include all the international legal obligations Finland has, and additionally a few other rights which are not mentioned in international treaties. (Finnish Human Rights Council and Ojanen & Scheinin, 2011; 179-180). As in the National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights 2017-2019 states “the question” is how society will ensure freedom of expression, religion, opinion and movement. (National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights, 2017; 11 & 16).
“Act on the Finnish Red Cross” (238/2000), states that FRC is “acknowledged by the State of Finland and governed by public law”. The Act on the FRC states that FRC is governed by the public law and its activities are based on the four Geneva Conventions as well as by the fundamental principles. International Humanitarian law, to which Red Cross movement is built on is separated from the HR which came in to picture after World War 2. whereas the Geneva Conventions have their roots in 17th century. HR can be seen having a close
relationship with humanitarian conventions. Despite HR being regarded as more political and new than humanitarian law, the committee of the Red Cross states that they stand for
promotion of HR. (Schindler, 1979.) It is crucial to keep in mind in this study, since Youth Shelters is FRC run and is therefore, mostly based on humanitarian law and the needs and acts in relation to it.
2.2.1. Legal Human Rights related to obligations at Youth Shelters
According to the Ministry of Social and Health the base for social work in Finland is built on “Human Rights and Social justice”. Strong social work aims to make sure that also those in the most difficult positions will also get all help and support needed. (Social work; The Ministry of Social and Health.) Even if the work done in Youth Shelters is complementary for the municipalities’ social services, also work in Youth Shelters is bound with the national social service related legislations. (Suurpää, 2020). Since Youth Shelters are run by NGO (the Finnish Red Cross), they are seen as non-State actors in regard to their obligations in regards to international law.
Still, legally Youth Shelters work is bound with Finnish domestic law specifically with Child Welfare Act (2007) and Social Welfare Act (2014) (Youth Shelters code of conduct, 2011). Youth Shelters work is legally considered as private social welfare action, and is regulated and monitored by the Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVIA) as well as National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira). All the youths met and sheltered at Youth Shelters are registered in appropriate manner. (Suurpää, 2020.)
Everyone working at Youth Shelters has gone through Red Cross’ own trainings. Every volunteer is obligated to go through “Welcome to the Finnish Red Cross- training” as well as a Youth Shelters specified training “Welcome to the Youth Shelters”. Also First Aid 1- and 2 -courses are mandatory for both employees and volunteers. In addition, mental support and humanitarian law - trainings is expected. (SMP, 2019-2020.) On top of these two volunteers
and employees are encouraged to do other in-service training. (Youth Shelters; Introduction Material, 2018.)
2.2.2. Legal status of volunteers and employees
Legal status of volunteers and employees varies. As ratified HR treaties are legally binding only state actors (Parliament of Finland), there is no legally-binding obligations towards citizens themselves directly from the international law side. Indirect obligations do occur through domestic law in which IL obligations are integrated to. Morally, it can still be seen that everyone are expected to respect the rights of others in order to equally achieve their own (Tasioulas, 2016). Therefore, when looking from a legal perspective volunteers are working under different obligations than the employees.
According to the Self-Monitoring Plan (2019-2020; 16) volunteers are acting as “adult’s role, with their personal capacity and knowledge” and they cannot replace any employees. Rather, HR treaties, can be seen mostly as morally guiding ideas for volunteers, as volunteers are asked to work with the trainings (mentioned in the section 2.2.), Red Cross nine principles and their own life experience in mind (SMP, 2019-2020). In contrast to employees HR laws cause, through domestic law and their professional obligations, legally binding
responsibilities. What comes to HR implementations as legal obligations or moral guidelines, differences shall be kept in mind throughout this study.
2.2.3. Youth Shelters’ Self-Monitoring Plan
Youth Shelters have “Self-Monitoring plan” (SMP) which can be seen as a working guideline for the employees. In the SMP are references to basic rights employees at Youth Shelters are obligated to ensure. SMP is part of Finnish Red Cross Youth occupational safety and
therefore safeguards the seven basic principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement: humanity, fairness, volunteering, independence, unity and universality. SMP also contains references to the rights and obligations regulated by the United Nations (UN)
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In particular, the principle of the best interests of the child and the principle of protection of private and family life, are mentioned as the
most relevant principles. SMP also refers to the Finnish constitutional elements as well as to the national legislation like the Child Protection Act (2014). (Helsinki’s SMP, 2019-2020.) When the youth comes to the house for the first time, she/he will be having a discussion with employee regarding the situation. Guiding questions are related to the length of the crisis, why the youth came in at this moment, who are involved in the situation, what kind of change is wished from the youths side as well as how the youth thinks Youth Shelters can support him/her at this situation. After the discussion Youth Shelters will be shown and introduced for the youth. After, the youth coming to the house youth’s guardians will be contacted by the employee. The guardian will also be asked similar questions that were asked from the youth. The guardian will be told how the Youth Shelters are organized and reminded that the main responsibility of the child remains with guardian. After this, there will be contract made on the customership. Also, if there has been someone convoying the youth, he/she will be consulted. (Instructions for receiving a young person: Youth Shelters.)
The client's status and rights are defined in accordance with the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients (812/2000). SMP refers in particular to Section 4, Paragraph 2, according to which: “When implementing social care, the client's wishes, opinion, interest
and individual needs as well as his or her language and cultural background must be taken into account”. According to SMP this has been secured by using an interpretation service if
necessary. (SMP, 2019-2020; 17.) In addition, SMP identifies cultural and social rights, for example in the section “daily activities”. The section identifies youth’s right for leisure and further sets the goal of securing young person's adequate amount of sleep. (SMP, 2019-2020; 19.)
SMP states the importance of respecting client’s right to self-determination, which is also secured in the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients (812/2000) Section 2 paragraph 4 and 5. When implementing social care in accordance with the nine principles of the Red Cross, the customer work of the Youth Shelter is based on an encounter that respects the client’s right to self-determination. In the implementation of social welfare Act and in the Customer Service of the Red Cross the individual needs, wishes and opinions of the young person and his / her parents shall be taken into account. (SMP, 2019-2020; 18.) This is accurate for the Youth Shelters as all the work done is based on voluntarism. In the other words the participation of the youth and their family should always be voluntary. This is most evident in the way the client is approached and helped; the youth or family member herself defines their own need of help or support. (SMP, 2019-2020; 19.)
2.3. IMPLEMENTING THE CONVENTION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD IN YOUTH WORK
It was seen most appropriate to use a specific HR treaty as a working instrument in this study. Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) was chosen it is said to include all the main political, social, economic and cultural rights from HR dogma and has speciality for children and youth related issues.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) is one of the most accepted human rights treaties globally. It was published in 1989 and is now ratified by 193 States globally. Invernizzi discusses in her book “The Human Rights of Children: From Vision to
Implementation” how International Human Rights, specially the Convention of the Rights of
the Child (CRC), are implemented domestically. She states how human rights can be seen as globally accepted standards to protect and promote the rights of children. Further CRC can be then seen as an international standard against which to measure policies and legislations. (Invernizzi; Williams, 2016; 65.)
However, only state parties are obligated to fulfill CRC’s contents through the report system for the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Implementation happens through many levels; juridical implementations includes reporting systems, obligations and penalties, where as non-judicial implementations include more normative elements, which are also termed as “collaborative activism”. (Invernizzi & Williams, 2016; 240.)
As Tomuschat (2007; 109) recognizes third generations rights, which CRC is part of, are something which in order to realize them, need not only legislative elements but also
elements through societal levels. According to Tomuschat third generations’ rights shall be understood as “political objectives” which role is to operate as guidelines and policy
branches.
According to Richards-Shuster and Pritzker (2015; 90) CRC works as a framework for youth civic engagement specifically within the field of social work. CRC’s Article 1. clearly states that child and youth means children under 18. Specifically youth related articles are articles 12-15, which encourage young people towards community acts, policy decision making and organizational activities. There are special lines which encourage youths to take part in and engage through research making, questioning, assembling and expressing themselves freely.
This further causes responsibility for people around (see context youth are met) to see and give agency for adolescents. (Richards-Shuster and Pritzker, 2015; 90.)
In his book “Human rights and social equality: challenges for social work” (2014), Hessel brings together different professionals to answer question “how can social work and social policies contribute in the endeavor to respect, protect and fulfill human rights?”. He states that Social Equality is the main linkage between all the other rights, since it correlates with better protection of all other rights from social and economic rights to civil and political liberties.
Concerning other factors Hessel mentions (2014; 9-137), people with disabilities (how to appropriately assist and support their needs), LGBT- rights (how to be aware of the possible heteronormativity in the workplace), children in risk (how to support paperless children or children with language barriers etc.), young women and girls (how to be aware of the special vulnerabilities in terms of these groups) and lastly, children’s right to health (how to help children to access mental and physical health services). These work as good categories to look into, yet it is necessary to remember that these categories are overlapping each other, so consequently there may be youth which can find themselves in many of these categories. (Hessel, 2014; 9-137.) Hessle's ideas will further be used in the survey done at Youth Shelters (see section 4.2) .
Andressa et al. (2019) ask whether human rights monitoring and implementation. They see that documenting and analysing implementation techniques is important, because they are to support and advocate civil society groups, youths and other interested parties around
Convention. From the information gathered international and local actors may gain awareness and merits of individual approaches. (Andressa at al, 2019; 318.) Documenting and analysing the implementation of CRC will be partly what this study aims to look at, in order to
recognize and then further develop the implementation techniques in place.
3.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK -RESEARCH DESIGN
3.1.NEW LEGAL REALISM THEORY
“legal scholarship will be enriched if more of it is grounded in empirical study of the actors, institutions and processes that give rise to international law, and international law reception and effects within the world. Scholars can combine empirical methods, including through collaborative projects and checking one's work against others empirical findings. It is in this way that legal scholarship can contribute greatly to informing ongoing debates and
strategies for legal and institutional reform. “ - Shaffer, 2008 p. 7
New Legal Realism (NLR) is a pragmatic, empirical and context based theory, which creates bridges between the legal and social fields (Shaffer, 2008; 9). NLR recognizes how law itself matters as a power through discourse and institutional practices as well as operational ideals. NLR focuses on relational and context-based understanding of law. Here law is a dependent variable as well as an independent variable, meaning that law is not researched only with classic linearity- causality logic. (Klug & Merry, 2016.) Bryan Garth (2006; 942) recognizes this as well as he defends empirical research to be the key aspect of NLR. According to him, research build on empirical findings allows scholars to relate better to legal categories as well as clear out what is really happening. (Garth, 2006; 942.)
NLR has also been described as a big tent, in which there are many contemporary law schools with interpretive and behavioral study approaches with qualitative as well as quantitative research methods (Klug & Merry, 2016). Consequently NLR scholars have embraced eclectic research methods on law. (Suhman & Mertz, 2010; 560.) According to Macaulay (2005; 385 ), New Legal Realism involves law in action yet is more expanded version of it.
Macaulay states how NLR should go more beyond researching gaps between disciplines. What he sees important is the bottom-up position NLR scholars are taking and possibly giving more information about the costs and benefits of the law in question. (Macaulay, 2005;385 & 389.) Shaffer (2015; 1945-5) discusses NLR as something different from
positive and natural law theories. Therefore, Shaffer summaries NLR studies law in context, yet sees it as part of border study of law in a society. (Shaffer, 2015; 194-5.)
Shaffer introduces (2015; 189) three main questions NLR theory aims to answer;
1) How law obtains meaning? 2) How is law practiced?
3) How does law change over time?
These three questions are NRL theorists’ way to answer the question “How actors use and apply law?”, which shows how problem-oriented and empirical the theory is in general.
(Shaffer, 2015 189.) This will further be discussed as well as operationalized in use, in the part 3.2.
3.1.2. Five characters of NLR
Dagan and Kreitner define (2016; 528-35) NLR by five specific characteristics for it. These five characters are also easily found in other NLR related sources (see Macaulay & Sally, Shaffer and Earnagelr). Firstly, NLR’s main focus is legal doctrine as well as legal
institutions. NLR recognizes behavioral and non-legal elements as independent variables causing and determining law as “dependent variable”, the use of law in discourse,
institutional practices as well as aspirational ideals matter as the law creates to be something “constitutive”.
NLR also gives attention to interrelations between different factors. As one of the first NLR pillars Stewart Macaulay says, that using NLR theory is to study ‘law in action’ or ‘the living law’. Such a study’s aim is to draw attention to the effect of law on the everyday lives of ordinary people. (Macaulay, 2005; 368, 375 & Dagan and Kreitner, 2016; 528-35.) Secondly, NLR focuses translating social science into law. Merry (2006; 975) writes about NLR relationship with social science. According to Sally (2006; 979) socio-legal research is useful in understanding the social process of human rights law. However, socio-legal research shows that rights are fragmented, conditional and unevenly supported by the common public. Doing this type of a research will require bottom-up emphasis on how international ideas affect local communities and ethnographic analysis of global legal production. (Sally, 2006; 979.)
Therefore, thirdly, NLR looks the study field from bottom up, meaning that the main focus is at the law “on the ground” rather than in the treaties. NLR scholars push researchers to study law at the bottom and middle of the social hierarchy. (Dagan & Kreitner, 2018; 534.) Yet according to Garth (2006; 942) NLR scholars also insist the significance of combining bottom-up and top-down research (Garth, 2006; 942). To be fully informed about the social context in question, NLR stresses field-intensive methods such as participant observation and interviewing (Shaffer, 2008; 29-42.) Fourthly, NLR scholars are often interested in effective legal actions, this means that NLR bottom up focus aim is to create more fair legal system,
which delivers justice for all (Dagan & Kreitner, 2018; 528-9). This is also seen in the intention of NLR wanting to evidence that formal law can and do have effect (Erlanger et al. 2005; 340).
Lastly, NLR recognizes globalization of legality and sees both risks of proliferation of legal forms due increasingly globalized world as well as the risk of parochialism when the global ideals get localized. (Dagan & Kreitner, 2018; 528-9.) Sally (2006; 976) writes how, NLR is interested in researching the so called ‘mobility of law’ which means how intersections between law and custom are created both in the local setting as well as in the international one. According to Shaffer (2015; 197) in the study of international law, the main
characteristic of NLR is the focus on empirical work. Social and legal problems are increasingly affected by cultural and economic globalization. Transnational social connectedness makes micro-level issues connected with macro-level, this further opens greater need and possibilities for pragmatic view on international law and its empirical study. (Shaffer, 2015; 197.)
3.2.OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE THEORY
In this study NLR theory is used as a tool for data analysis. The theory was chosen because the main interest was to research how/if the implementation of the Convention of the Right of the Children is seen or experienced at the context of Youth Shelters by social workers and volunteers. In order to answer three guiding questions ( 1) How law obtains meaning in Youth Shelters in Finland? 2) How is CRC law practiced) and 3) How does law change over
time) data was collected using different methods.
A survey was collected from all the employees in 2019 and from volunteers in spring 2020. In the 2019 workshop discussions and interviews with workers were conducted. Additionally, interviews were conducted with four volunteers, whereas workshops were done for almost all the employees (N=37). Questions in the workshops and interviews were semi-structured, (as there were only three open ended question asked, in order to also have time and space for further discussion).
The survey questions were made according to above discussed Hessle’s book “Human rights and social equality: challenges for social work” (2014). Even though the book is meant for social service context, it introduced issues which can be seen as relevant for Youth Shelters context, where the work with young people is social work per se. Hessle had guiding ideas in
terms of planning what Human Rights factors to look into. The survey dealt with HR and diversity related themes, which can also been found in the CRC.
Themes included in the survey can be put under six categories: social, cultural and economic rights, civil and political rights, linguistic minorities, racial discrimination, gender- and sexual minorities and discrimination towards people with disabilities.
4.METHODOLOGY
NLR focuses on three different tensions; tension between science and craft, tradition and progress as well as reason and power (Daga & Kreitner, 2018; 539). Thereby, this study will mainly focus on the relationship between science and craft and therefore conduct an empirical study which for NLR scholars is often used method (Shaffer, 2015; 194).
This study is a single case study conduct at the Youth Emergency Houses analyzed within New Legal Realist setting. According to Abercrombie, Hill and Turner (1984; 34) single case study is a “detailed examination of a single example of a class of phenomena”. Frybjerg explains that a case study gives possibilities to leave the discussion “open” for further wide range of interpretations and conclusions. This causes, as he writes, the outcome of the study “to be different things to different people”. (Flyvbjerg, 2006; 238).
The study will use the analytical descriptive approach (what is going on?) as a way to enter and introduce the subject. The study aims to get understanding of the bridge between law and practice and further see what type of features are possibly changing meanings on the way (in either direction).
There will be triangulation of different concepts of methods. Methods used are qualitative (interviews and workshop conversations) as well as quantitative (surveys) in nature,
whereupon they go hand in hand with the New Legal Realist theorizing which often focuses on empirical research with polyphonic methods (Suchman & Mertz, 2010; 560).
Five characteristics of the NLR are operationalized to the different methods used. Here we will see how each of the NLR characters are taken into the consideration (=operationalized) during the data collection and analysis:
1. The use of law in institutionalized/contextualized practices
While conducting the survey and workshops, observational analysis was (also) done. The aim was to recognize that what are or can be seen as the Human Rights, specially CRC related ones, practices at Youth Shelters? Observation was done by paying attention to how CRC is contextualized at the Youth Shelters policies and norms told by the workers? HR related practices can be seen through Youth Shelters Self-Monitoring Plan (SMP) and further contextualization can be studied through discussions, as the workshop/interview question number 1. gives some guide of which articles employees and volunteers felt relevant in regards to their work.
2. Translating social science into law
In order to look into this characteristic the interview/workshop questions 1. (Which of the
CRC articles do you find most relevant in your work?) and 2.(Which of the CRC articles feel important to pay more attention to?) will be examined. The focus is on how the law get
interpreted and applied at Youth Shelters. Further the data was analysed and then translation between these two fields (international law and Youth Shelters social context) will be created.
3.Bottom-up
Bottom-up emphasis is present throughout the study as it focuses on the workers and
volunteers experiences rather than the field of laws or policies. Bottom-up emphasis is taken into account through the third workshop/interview question, which considers if there are any need for HR/CRC related training in order to ensure the rights in CRC.
4. Effective legal action
The effect of HR, specially CRC, is measured through the survey’s questions 1.-16. Survey questions 17.-19. can also be seen as ways to see how and if CRC is effectively implemented and if there is a need for training.
The importance to hear how CRC is practiced and experienced in the daily work at Youth Shelters gets clear, when looking into how the law has moved from international legislative elements to the ground level, and then further investigate how global gets to be local. Therefore workshop/interview questions 1., 2. and 3. are set to investigate how law works. Also, questions in the survey can all be seen as important ones to investigate how
(international) law works in the actions of Youth Shelters employees and volunteers.
4.1.CASE SELECTION
Motivation for this study raised through the realization of how law was created and ‘brought to life’ in very local setting. It seemed interesting to look how legal norms are applied in practice. As international law is created to be universal guideline, there was an eagerness to learn, how sometimes distantly seen discourse is interpreted and further applied into very practical setting. Human Rights can be seen as legal as well as moral guidelines, which further caused interest in how these two blur in a practical setting. The interest also got further expanded through personal interest in psychology, how the actors (themselves) recognize their own work as a part of bigger (legal and social) web.
This study was empirical in nature, meaning that data was collected before theory was chosen. First data (workshops and surveys done for employees) was collected during the author’s internship in spring 2019, as a part of Youth Shelters inner equality and HR development. During the workshops and surveys conducted, the personal research interest deepened from the observations. Together with Leena Suurpää, the manager of Youth
Shelters were decided further that the research may continue and extend as part of the coming Bachelor’s study on spring 2020.
4.2.CHOICE OF DATA
The study is based on observations in workshops which were created for Youth Shelters employee- teams, as well as questionnaires completed during the workshops. There were a few volunteers interviewed with same semi-structured question frame which was in use at the workshops. This works as a primary source for this thesis. In the workshops, we focused in particular on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and an
summarized version of it formulated by the UNICEF. In each workshop, we discussed the following agreements on a more specific theme: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (8/1976), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (6/1976), the 19th International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(27/2016).
As secondary sources journal articles and academic books are used especially in the theory part as well as when conducting the survey questions. Secondary sources will also help to organize and structure the analysis and discussion part in the end of this study.
4.3.CHOICE OF METHODS
There are different methods used to achieve diverse data collection. Data collection was conducted at Youth Shelters in three different ways; Firstly there were surveys conducted for the employees and volunteers. In the survey there were twenty CRC related questions, which are more discussed in the section 4.2. (operationalization of the theory) and throughout the analysis. Survey was filled in person by the employees as a part of the conducted workshops, volunteers were answering to the questions online through Google Forms.
Secondly, there were workshop discussions in each of the Youth Shelters, altogether five different sessions. Workshops started with the questionnaire and were followed by short introduction of Human Rights and the Finnish domestic Non-discrimination Act (2014). After the informative part semi-structured discussion section followed (which was done with proper time) in order to observe in appropriate manner. Thirdly, there were interviews with a few volunteers with the same semi-structured form as with employees. Interviews were conducted through Zoom- application, due the pandemic situation and its restrictions.
Diversity in the methods used were in place so that the results would make justified picture of the studied reality. Survey was easy to conduct for many people and served well during time of pandemic and distance-working. Workshops were seen educative and qualitative in nature. Interviews were a way to give more in depth voice for volunteers as there were no workshops to offer due to the situation.
The title of the workshop and interviews was “Human Rights as construction in Youth Emergency Houses”. Although the workshops were organized for each house and volunteers separately, this study deals with them as a whole, highlighting some of the specific features of each house to the extent that one may think it is appropriate.
The workshops were led by the Author and J. Grönfors, an expert on Red Cross equality and anti-racism work. Workshops were divided into two section. First section was equality focused and led by Grönfors, after which the theme was cross-cutting across the workshop. However, the main focus of the workshop was on the second part, which focused on international human rights treaties. The second part was led by the Author and itt included basic historical, legal and moral approaches to HR.
Our aim was to create a safe and open space at the crossroads of many expertise. This was possible through the structure where at the beginning we lectured more the theoretical parts of equality and human rights, after which we encouraged employees to reflect and share what kind of thoughts and ideas arose from what we shared, from the perspective of their daily work. Discussion part was semi-structured and questions open-ended by nature.
The workshop always started with an introduction tour where everyone told, in addition to their name and job title, a certain right that felt important on that very morning. After the intro there were two mentioned sections of equality and human rights, followed by more interactive part. Interaction started with reading the summarized version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (sCRC) by UNICEF.
After reading sCRC the workshops focused on three main issues:
1) Which articles do you find most relevant in your work? 2) Which article feels important to pay more attention to?
3) Do I need support / resources from outside for a particular theme?
Interviews followed the same question structure, yet did not include the theory part of the workshops. They were also run individually via video conferencing App Zoom or in phone.
4.5.SURVEY
Employees and volunteers answered to the survey. The survey included 20 questions on how employees perceive human rights related policies at work at the moment. These questions were created based on Hessles’s book “Human rights and social equality: challenges for
social work” (2014) as discussed above (see the section 3.2).
The questionnaires were answered by 39 employees working either as employees or doing their internship and by 56 volunteers. There were 47 employees and 3 interns in 2018. According to Youth Shelters’ introduction material (2020) there have been 521 volunteers involved in the year 2019 of which 11% participated into this study. This means that the volunteer sample is not strong comparing to staff-members, yet it is still usable and important as such.
4.6. ETHICAL REVIEW
Ethics of this study were taken into consideration through various ways. The study was registered into Malmö University’s General Data Protection Regulation Register (GDPR) and conducted accordingly.
The survey as well as the interviews were done anonymously. In the survey questions were created to not to ask too ethically sensitive information from the participants (i.e. ethnicity; political opinion; religious or philosophical beliefs).
When conducting the surveys and workshops consent from all the participants was asked verbally. As it was decided later to use survey questions not only internally, but also in the thesis, externally consent was asked via emails and if someone had a concern or did not want to participate they could have emailed the Author. There was no emails received concerning the use of the data.
When conducting interviews for the volunteers a consent paper was filled. Before starting the interview the paper of consent was discussed through and due to the pandemic situation
papers were then filled after the actual interview by the interviewee and further scanned to the Author. Consent papers are archived in authors Google Drive – account, as they do not
4.7.LIMITATIONS
Due to time and space limits there has been selectivism in place what comes to collected data, material and literature. Methods were chosen in a most practical and time-vice way. The study is also clearly a case study, and therefore limited into its own (time and space related) context.
In the beginning of the data collection, volunteers and employees were chosen to be the subjects of this study, because they do every day work with youth clients. Even though there is a need to hear youths own thoughts about Human Rights and their implementation, they were seen to be vulnerable group to start working with concerning limits in time, space and professionalism this study had.
Legal Realism could have been another theoretical starting point, yet NLR was chosen since it also recognizes and discusses international law and globalization, which are crucial in this study.
As this study was more explanatory on how HR are interpreted and applied in the Youth Shelter context, in future there is need for follow-up research on how to help HR dogma to be grounded in the local settings such as Youth Shelter. Which kind of techniques are needed to imply, and how much can be done only by external trainings?
5.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Firstly, here are the survey results where one can see employees and volunteer agreements (%) to the main CRC themes asked. After this, there will be discussion based on all the findings.
Table 1. Main CRC themes in survey by employees and volunteers agreements %.
Employees agree fully or to some extent X/100% Volunteers agree fully or to some extent X/100%
1. I feel that we in Youth Shelters are equally taking care of the
special needs of different ethnic backgrounds. 85% 93%
2. In my experience we in Youth Shelters are actively acting
against racism. 72% 93%
3. I wish to have more support to recognize and prevent racism. 30% 39%
4. At Youth Shelters praying space is taken into consideration if
needed 39% 21,4 % (68% could
not say )
5. I feel that, we at the Youth Shelters are taking into account gender diversity, for example in the language we use, nor do we have strong presumptions regarding appearance and gender of the person.
73% 68%
6. I wish to have more support to understand and meet gender
diversity. 43% 41%
7. I feel that, we at the Youth Shelters are taking into account questions of language incapacities.
58% 52%
8. I feel that our Swedish speaking activities are adequate 23% 19,7%
(66% could not say)
9. I feel that our Sámi speaking activities are adequate.
(In Finland there are Sami speaking people in terms of number
of speakers Northern-, Skolt- and Inari’s Sámi language. Helsinki is the biggest Sámi speaking city in Finland.)
15% 21%
(57% could not say)
10. I feel that our easy Finnish activities are adequate. 20% 39,3%
11. We at the Youth Shelters have an easy physical access for
12. We at the Youth Shelters have an easy social access for people with disabilities.
(social accessibility means that a person feels welcome to act
safely without the stain of discrimination. In the space, he feels heard and able to participate as an independent actor.)
82% 77%
13. I wish to have more support to create space which is
accessible physically as well as socially. 9% 25%
14. We in shelters treat diverse families equally. For example, we do not assume heteronormativity within the families, or linguistic ability in the texts or speeches we use
90% 48%
15. I feel that it is clear to me how to act if the young person coming to the house is paperless.
(paperlessness is not defined by law or regulation, as there is no
separate sub-regulation for paperless. Therefore, definitions of paperless vary.
In practice, a paperless person is a person who lives in Finland without a legal right of residence. Paperless stays are not officially known or allowed by the authorities. The mere absence of a passport or other identity card does not make a person paperless. Asylum seekers are also not paperless, as they are allowed to stay in Finland during the processing of their asylum application.)
46% 21%
16. I feel that we are giving enough space for young people to be active influencers in dealing with their own situation during their stay in the shelter.
94% 91%
17. I feel that we provide enough inspiration for young people to
be active and important influencers in other civic activities 57% 59%
18. Would you feel the need for more human rights education or
training in the future? 85% yes 66 % yes
The main results according to the survey answers can be divided into two groups: themes which are taken well cared of, and themes which are not felt to be adequately taken care of. Recognition and prevention of racism, recognition of gender diversity within families and youths, recognition and awareness of language incapacities, were themes which the respondents felt to be well taken into account. Respondents were strongly like-minded agreeing that youth are given space to be active in their own case at Youth Shelters. In addition, Youth Shelters employees and volunteers experienced Youth Shelters as a place which is socially accessible for people with disabilities.
Main themes which seemed not be adequately experienced were physical accessibility where from both respondents group around 70% disagreed with Youth Shelters being easy to access physically. Other theme raised from the survey was uncertainty if Youth Shelters is providing “enough inspiration for youth to be active and important influencers in other civic activities”. Contractionary even the recognition and awareness of language incapacities was felt to be taken into account, Swedish and Samí – speaking activities as well as easy Finnish activites were not felt to be adequately taken care of. Most of the respondents wanted to have further HR training in all dealt themes.
In the following discussion part, the study goes into deeper analysis based on the data collected. The discussion will be divided into two sections according to research question: “How is the Convention of the Rights of the Child interpreted and applied in the Youth
Emergency Houses in Finland?”. NLR Theory is used here as an analytical tool, as it is
seeking the answer to the question “How actors use and apply law?” (Shaffer, 2015 189).
5.1.INTERPRETATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
Firstly, analysis will look into the interpretation, which is indicated in the first sub-question:
How do the staff-members and volunteers interpret human rights in the context of Youth Shelters?
5.1.1. Bottom-up approach - diversity in the study ground
Even Youth Shelters were operated in this study as a one unit, it is reasonable to note that throughout the study there were differences between all five houses and their practices. Studying law with Dagan and Kreitner’s (2016; 528-35) NLR characteristics in mind, one can see that while Youth Shelters employees and volunteers were seen as a bottom of the
international law (CRC) and its implementation, the emphasis was not that that simple; the bottom was very diverse and even hierarchical within as well. Differences within the bottom were found both in the consensus on the common value base of the five houses as well as with different thematic emphasis within every house. Showed up that the “bottom” under the study is very diverse. For example, in one house the emphasis is more on civil and political rights, while in one other the focus seemed to be more on identifying and enforcing the rights of gender and sexual minorities. This indicates that CRC and survey questions were answered and interpreted differently.
Also, ‘bottom’ was diverse concerning its actors, which was realized with the positions and experiences of volunteers and employees and their different interpretations on CRC. Some volunteers felt lack of competency what came to answering to certain questions, especially in the survey. One volunteer wrote into the survey’s comment box how “as having the role of a volunteer was hard to answer to some questions, when not being sure how are these points realized in Youth Shelters”. Also, other a volunteer wrote how “some themes must be clear for employee, yet I needed to answer ‘I could not say’ as I have not experienced this kind of situations in the shifts I have had. -- I do not know how are the policies or if there are any. HR constructivism as principles are in any case very clear thing.”
This also brings forth volunteers high use of the answer “I could not say” in the survey, when it was notably answered in the questions 4 (70%), 5. (25%), 8. (66%), 9. (57%), 10. (52%) and 17. (36%). This could together with above mentioned comments show that there is significant deflection between volunteers and employees’ experience of being competent to answer HR related survey questions. Additionally, this can partly be caused if the survey questions were taken to be very much about policies and not practices. It can also be
acknowledged that there may be expectations towards employee knowledge of HR issues as well as their work can be expected to be more HR constructed. Whereas, volunteers in this regard may not be aware of the proper discourse of HR not to mention their knowledge of their own role as HR promoters.
The difference in the experiences of competence between volunteer and employees shows how within the “bottom” there are (natural) inner hierarchies which affect the interpretations of the CRC. As NLR seeks to study how law operates and creates meaning in practice within certain context, this finding of inner hierarchies is fundamental: law operates at the bottom from bottom-up emphasis. Therefore, employees are given more responsibility to define what
the law (CRC) means. This is reasonable as there are legally different obligations for
volunteers and employees. Yet, it is future oriented and interesting to question how to support volunteers with their experience of lacking competency, and if this is even their wish.
5.1.2. Translating social science into law (or vice-versa?)
Employees had high percentages with the response “I could not say” in the question 17. 37% of the employees and 36 % of the volunteers answered that they could not say whether the youth were provided a space to be active when dealing with their own situation.
Why is it that this question could not be answered? On the one hand the difficulty of
answering can appear due to the fact that the question can be seen more relevant for the youth to answer. On the other hand, civic activities can be unclear for the respondents in terms of content or even as a phenomenon. As the survey was conducted before interviews or workshops, it can be recognized that deeper interpretation could have affected to better translation through shared discourse. This could be seen as mistranslation between law and social science, meaning that the actual content of civil and political rights was not clear in the Youth Shelters context. In workshops employees discussed a lot about civil and political participation (see section 7.2.3.), which contradicts with the assumption of political or civil rights being unclear and strengths the importance of shared discourse.
As Dagan & Kreitner as well as Tomelins, recognized the main mission of NLR is to integrate legal training and analysis together with social science, creating breaches between social world and lawyers and policy makers. This is seen crucial in order to create more complete picture of law within the social world. (Dagan & Kreitner, 2016; 532; Tomlins, 2006; 795.) Mirroring to this, it can be said that NLR’s translation of social science to law, could be needed in this case other way around; working groups focusing on law for people working on the social field may be needed, in order to interpret the phenomenon and content of the (CRC) law properly.
5.2.APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
The second part of the analysis focuses on the main question and simultaneously answers the second sub question: How do Youth Shelters employees and volunteers apply CRC in their
work?. This will indicate Dagan’s and Kreitner’s fourth character given, as it is ‘the effective
legal action’. When introducing different applications, we are able to see some effective and ineffective practices.
Also, the study will discuss the identified training needs, which covers the third sub-question: Is
there any support needed in order to interpret and further apply the rights mentioned in the CRC? Through answering to this it will show what the Dagan and Kreitner fifth character
‘mobility of law’ means at Youth Shelters context.
5.2.1. Case by case mentality - working against discrimination
The first character in the Dagan & Kreitner’s (2016; 528-35) NLR theory is “the use of law in institutionalized/contextualized practices”. The main institutionalized practice of CRC at Youth Shelters seemed to be the so called case-by-case mentality, where youth is met individually according to her/his needs. Employees especially felt that the case-by-case approach is one of the main principles of act in Youth Shelters. When talked about persons belonging to a minority group was said that, if there is no written or agreed Youth Shelters common policy, the person will be heard as an individual and not as a minority group member, unless it is relevant. Also during workshops several houses reported that the characteristics mentioned in the article 20. related to the “ethnic, religious and linguistic background of the child” are taken well into account, through the individual approach they have and in relation to each client’s needs. Yet, there is no common equality plan in any houses nor is it a part of Youth Shelters general policy.
The first four questions in the survey focused on racism; possible identification of it and identified actions against it. Employees were particularly like-minded on racism related questions. 85% of respondents agreed with the statement that shelters take good and equal care of the special needs of people with different ethnic backgrounds. From volunteers 93% agreed fully and only 7 % could not say. As many volunteers felt that shelters were active in combating racism. However, at this point it is reasonable to consider that while 85% of respondents agreed that shelters are active in the fight against racism, 9% felt that they disagreed with the statement. In addition, 6% of respondents could not say. Volunteers were even more like-minded 93% agreeing that shelters actively with against racism. 5% could not say and 1% disagreed.
As we can see, in the survey racism was perceived as well identified and anti-racist actions are felt to be in place. Yet, interpretations differed when looking at the answers for more concrete examples of different needs from possibly persons with different ethnic backgrounds in question 4. and 15. By employees answers given for the statement number 4. " At Youth Shelters praying space is taken into consideration if needed.", were spread over a wide spectrum. The highest percentage of answers to the question was “I am not sure” (25%), while the other answer options were otherwise very even having similar amount of
percentages each of them (about 18-21%). From volunteers 68% answered to this “could not say”.
A wide range of employees gave a similar response to statement number 15 concerning paperless youths. For the claim “I feel that it is clear for me what to do if a young person coming into the house is paperless”. As many employees agreed (46% ) and disagreed ( 39%) when, 15% could not say how to act. From volunteers 59% disagreed with the claim, when 21% agreed and 20% could not say. The multiplicity of responses would argue that there is no clear agreement between or within houses regarding what to do when the youth is paperless. Yet, there might not be many encountered cases.
It seems that case-by-case approach as a common institutionalized (law) practice is justified and enables the exercise of the rights of the individual in several respects. However, there are still risks especially, if there are no clear common policies. Such as in the case of the
paperless, where (39% of) employees and (59% of the) volunteers did not feel that it would be clear for them to know how to act, if youth coming to the Youth Shelters is paperless. The risk is, that there is too much space for personal stands which further may cause unequal outcomes between similar cases by different employees or volunteers. Still, it seems that this space is not unfairly used, as one volunteer commented: “The Red Cross and youth
emergency houses and also I have been always in the anti-racist week, -- it is part of the daily values. -- There [Youth Shelters] those [anti-racist acts] are actualized as good as they can be actualized anywhere.” (Interview, 2020).
5.2.2. Accessibility concerns
CRC’s first article claims that rights stated at it are for “every child under age 18”. This was discussed by the employees, since Youth Shelters is open for all youths under age 29. The
workers in Youth Shelters highlighted the significance of age especially in how services outside shelters are (un)accessible for youth over 18. It was said that it is difficult for young adults (those over 18) to access social care services when they do not have targeted support services, and are thus as the general adults, being part of adult social services with often longer waiting times than services targeted to youth. It was seen easier for minors to get help from social and health services than it was for adults. As Youth Shelters cooperate with other actors in the social field, employees felt that the possibilities for shelters to operate and help were affected by this age limit in public services. Employees saw this partly as a human rights issue, when people over the age of 18 do not receive the treatment they need, as quickly as would be necessary.
Both physical and social accessibility were addressed in the survey questions 11-13.
Accessibility was much discussed and concerns were reflected in the responses to the survey. 91% of employees disagreed with claim that ”We at the Youth Emergency Houses have easy physical access for people with disabilities.”. In addition 70% of volunteers disagreed with the claim whereas 24% agreed with it. All in all, Youth Shelters were seen as socially
accessible, when 82% of employees and 77% of volunteers agreed with the claim: “We at the Youth Shelters have easy social access for people with disabilities.”
Although the facilities were perceived as severely lacking, the need for support to make facilities physically or socially barrier-free was not high among employees, with only 33% of respondents agreeing with the claim “I wish to have more support to create space which is accessible physically as well as socially.”, while 46% did not agree. Yet, interestingly 53% of the volunteers wished for support when 29% did not and 18% could not say.
Physical and social accessibility were themes which emerged in all workshops discussions. Restrictions in the physical accessibility were noticed in several houses, for example due to the lack of an elevator had made it hard for people with wheelchairs to access. One employee said "- although we strive for social accessibility, the physical framework and accessibility of our house affects to the experience of social accessibility." It was recognized that it is not only a question of physical accessibility to enter the place, but also issue of safety, liability and justice (from the perspective of both the employee and the youth). The medical
responsibility of the employees may in some cases be too heavy as the client's right to safe and competent care cannot be undermined. All the working groups were concerned with the question(s) of responsibility what comes to medical adjusting and ergonomics for example lifting the person from wheelchair. Employees concerned with what would be the most
appropriate way, which would work for everyone. It was also noted that accessibility is (not only related to access to the house but) also to fire safety issues; for example, quick and safe exit.
Employees noted that the boundary in the cases of physical accessibility is often sensitive and therefore has to be defined with each client individually. Further, employees came forth with the question of how to enable young people with reduced mobility to access their homes and safeguard their right to professional assistance? In order to answer this question looking things with the case-by-case mentality with appropriate and sensitive weighing is required. This came up in many houses: If access to the house is not possible, the team will organize support on a case-by-case basis together with the youth and his/her guardians, for example signposting him/her to better support provider. However, many felt that the means to refer the youth to another service or care provider were not always sufficient. In the situation where youth’s close one, were in need of unobstructed space, meetings had been made via telephone or Skype.
Concerning language-related disabilities, there was specific talk about sign language. It is possible for a sign language user or person who has different mother tongue to have a interpreter in shelters, however, the use of and need on an interpreter has been rare in all houses.
In addition, mental disability raised thoughts. An employee raised concerns on how self-destructive youth are transferred sometimes to another place to get a treatment, even if the probability of obtaining help is minimal due to known limited resources in these places. Signposting is done for self-destructive young person may be at risk for the other youths. Another youth could be at risk of having to witness someone else's suicidal behavior. The employee thus considered mental disability or mental health problems as one form of disability, and further considered Youth Shelters socially inaccessible for such a person.
5.2.3. Youth Shelters’ everyday language
The questions on language use in the survey were questions 7-10 and 14, which concerned the use and availability of Swedish and Sámi speaking services in Youth Shelters. Finnish national minority languages (Latomaa & Nuolijärvi, 2012; 95). In workshops plain language
