MEDIA RELEASE
11 JUNE 2006
Ruby Harrold-Claesson – Swedish Lawyer – being brought to NZ by Coalition Section 59
Mrs. Ruby Harrold-Claesson, Lawyer, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. They have two daughters, Simone and Lorica and one
son, Leif. Ruby lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. She started her academic career by studying Law and Political Science in
France. In Sweden she has done post-graduate studies in Legal History, after which she took a Swedish law degree.
Ruby Harrold-Claesson runs a private law firm in Gothenburg. She works with family law, e.g. guardianship cases and
cases dealing with parental rights, criminal cases etc. Ruby Harrold-Claesson has referred several cases of breaches of
Human Rights to the European Commission for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Ruby defends families in Sweden who are being prosecuted and who are having their children taken from them under the
Swedish no-smacking legislation. Ruby says the destruction of families in Sweden is horrendous.
"It has ruined families and ruined children. The children in Sweden are incredibly badly behaved. They have no
discipline at home and no discipline in schools. I have seen a child kick his father repeatedly and all that man could
say was 'you shouldn't do that'. I've dealt with cases where parents are so frightened of imposing any form of
discipline that they have given up all responsibility; they say 'I can't stop my child running around at night, so if
something happens to them it's not my fault'. As far as I'm concerned parents are adults, and adults decide what is a
reasonable level of discipline. By taking away their ability to do that, you breed a new generation of wild,
ill-disciplined Vikings - and that is what we have here. We in the Nordic Committee of Human Rights are completely
against child abuse. We say this law is unnecessary because there has always been a law to punish child abuse - assault
and battery. This law saying a parent should not smack their child goes beyond all rhyme and reason."
She has founded and chairs the Nordic Committee for Human Rights, www.nkmr.org (click the Union Jack for English site),
composed of lawyers from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark who are also concerned about the level of social damage
such legislation is causing in their respective countries.
Read her article http://www.nkmr.org/english/smacking_and_the_law_a_european_perspective.htm
She is coming to NZ to testify before the NZ Select Committee. Ruby is being brought out by Coalition Section 59, a
group of over 150 concerned Community and Lobby groups and families, including Family Integrity, Society for Promotion
of Community Standards, Family First Lobby, Sensible Sentencing Trust, NZ Centre for Political Debate, PANIC, and
others.
ENDS