Scotlands Commissioner for Children and Young People

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Children's rights advocate dies

The man who is famed with starting the international movement for the post of Children's Obudsman died yesterday.

Anders Bratholm, a Norwegian Professor in Law, wrote in 1969 that children were a large but vulnerable group in society and that they did not have a organisation or person to give them a voice, like other groups have. He concluded that children and young people need a obudsman to speak up for them.

It was over a decade later that Norway established the the world's first Ombudsman for Children in 1981.

There are now Obudspersons and Children's Commmissioners in many different countries across the world.

Anders Bratholm 7 January 1920 – 8 July 2010