Tampere was the first municipality in Finland to establish the post of a municipal Children’s Ombudsman. An Ombudsman for Children was employed on 2 January, 2003. As this kind of function had not been implemented before, there was no ready-made model for it either. The work of the Children’s Ombudsman and the mandate’s profile have been planned little by little in cooperation with different bodies.
The vision of the Children’s Ombudsman’s function was derived from the City of Tampere’s urban strategy project called “Kaikem paree Tampere”. Underlying documents for the mandate were also the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of a Child and the Tampere Child Policy strategic programme based on it, the latter of which was adopted by the City Council of Tampere in 2000. Different social events, decisions and solutions have an impact on the position of children and young people. The particular areas of emphasis will be chosen on the basis of all of the above-mentioned factors. In the initial phase the work of the Children’s Ombudsman will be revised according to the feedback given by members of the municipality and the other organisations working in cooperation with the city.
