Chilren's welfare, children's rights and political economy in Finland.

This article discusses issues related to children's rights and children's welfare in Finland. An underlying principle of the Law on Security of Child Maintenance of 1977 is that society has a special obligation to support children in families with an absent parent. The legislation provides a limited financial guarantee from the state, which underwrites parental maintenance obligations. Supplementary child allowances have also been provided for single parent families. State agencies operate procedures for paternity investigation under the Law on Paternity of 1975 which, in principle, apply to every unmarried woman who gives birth to a child. Municipal Social Welfare Boards or authorized agencies have a remit under the Law on Adoption of 1979 to provide mandatory counseling of adoptive and natural parents. Salient features of the Nordic model of child law, incorporated in the Finnish system, indicate the influence and interventionist tendencies of social democracy and the strength of the welfare state in the Nordic region. Schemes for mandatory paternity investigation operate in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. All these jurisdictions limit a parent's power to impose physical punishment. Children's interests will be presented as a major consideration in policy development in any society. More fundamentally, the issue of population growth has allowed scope for the advancement of social democratic values in the Nordic countries.