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The CBSS Heads of Government underlined their concern for children at risk in the Baltic Sea Region. Recommended steps in the Chairman’s Conclusions included: 1. all regional, governmental and multilateral co-operation should come within the CBSS secretariat. This applies then to the Children at Risk project. 2. intensify efforts to enforce a coordinated and multidisciplinary approach towards children at risk in the Baltic Sea region, including, inter alia, initiatives at the local level, and to further develop the Child Centre for Children at Risk IT network for intergovernmental exchange of information and experiences in the area of child welfare and protection. 3. promote co-operation between NGOs and authorities involved in children’s issues. 4. continue the co-operation on promoting active participation of young people in the development of democratic and pluralistic societies.

The restructuring of the CBSS Secretariat prompted the discussion on the integration of the work on Children at Risk in the Baltic Sea Region into the CBSS. An ad-hoc meeting was held in Stockholm in March 2000 to discuss priorities for future initiatives on children at risk. This meeting clarified that there was political support from all member states to continue the work.

The Swedish Special Group for Children at Risk in the Baltic Sea Region, together with the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, started the work to create a home-page on the internet called ‘The Child centre for Children at Risk in the Baltic Region’. With the concept of becoming a ‘Barnahus on the internet,’ the aim of the IT project is to raise the level of knowledge about how to prevent the abuse of children, to protect children at risk and to rehabilitate children who have...

A CBSS Committee of Senior Officials annual report from June 1999 notes “The Swedish Special Group for Children at Risk in the Baltic Sea Region has also continued its work as a focal point for regional co-operation.”

The first meeting on the establishment of an IT-Network concerning Children at Risk in the Baltic Sea Region was held in Stockholm in April 1999, which was attended by CBSS staff. A follow-up meeting in Visby in 1999 agreed on the initial plan for the IT-network, which would tie the member states together through a single server. The most immediate success of this decision was anchoring the cooperation. In addition to the planning discussions, the meetings on the development of the IT network also featured exchanges of national practice.

A ministerial meeting “Children at Risk in the Baltic Sea Region” was held in Stockholm on 17 March 1999 as a follow-up event a CBSS conference held in Tallinn. The Swedish Minister for Social Affairs set up a special group for children at risk in the Baltic Sea Region in cooperation with the Norwegian Ministry for Children and Family Affairs. This group of four core representatives developed the idea of the IT network and also how to organise the cooperation among the member states on a more permanent basis.

The idea for an IT project first appeared during 1998. This became the now-retired “Child Centre” website, and was a key development in the establishment of the Expert Group. During November 1998, the CBSS Working Group on Democratic Institutions discussed following up the Tallinn conference and the IT project idea. At the meeting, the Commissioner [of the CBSS] referred to his earlier proposal to establish national contact-points on children’s issues in all CBSS member states. The contact-points would have as their primary goal to ensure that all CBSS countries continue to prioritise international co-operation on establishing better conditions for children. In order to ensure the political backing of the project members of the contact-points should include senior officials.

Sweden, Norway, and Estonia organised the first conference on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Baltic Sea Region in Tallinn in September 1998. The meeting emphasised the importance of multidisciplinary work and supported a stronger regional collaboration on the issue as well as to broaden the mandate to include children at risk in regional collaboration. Sweden and others wanted to target all sexual exploitation of children, not just commercial. The term ‘Children at Risk’ came into use, which eventually became the...

In January 1998 the CBSS launched its Report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Baltic Sea Region. At the CBSS Summit in Riga in January 1998, the Prime Ministers of the CBSS proposed that the Presidency of the CBSS organise the continued work in this field in accordance with the report. It resulted in initiatives to arrange seminars with a view to raising the awareness of the issue among the relevant decision-makers (police and public prosecutors, social and health services, schools, media, etc.).

In Riga in July 1997, the CBSS Foreign Ministers decided the organisation should work in the field of sexual abuse, violence in the media, and the situation of asylum-seeking minors. Two months later, in September, the CBSS Committee of Senior officials decided that the CBSS should implement the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as...