Stina Sværd takes over from Aviâja Egede Lynge and steps into a role with great expectations and growing challenges.
On August 1, 2025, a new person will take the chair as the new children’s spokesperson – and the Greenland Government has chosen a face with experience.
It will be Stina Sværd, who will take over the work from Aviâja Egede Lynge, who has held the position since 2015. A position she took over after Aaja Chemnitz (IA) was elected to the Folketing.
The Greenland Government writes this in a press release.
Now Stina Sværd will be at the forefront of strengthening children’s rights and well-being in the country – and it’s a task she doesn’t take lightly.
– I will work to ensure that all children in Greenland are heard – even those who are not asked. Children’s rights should not only be in laws and conventions, but should be lived in practice, she says in a press release from the Greenlandic Government.
The Children’s Ombudsman’s tasks
As a children’s spokesperson, Stina becomes the public face of MIO – Greenland’s institution for children’s rights.
She will have overall responsibility for both the Children’s Council and the secretariat.
The task will include monitoring compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, advising authorities and putting children’s lives and rights on the agenda.
Heavy area
According to the press release from the Greenland Government, Stina Sværd has worked with children and young people for more than two decades. She is a trained social worker and has been a caseworker, manager and volunteer.
For 18 years, her family has also served as an emergency foster family, which has given her a very special perspective on what children need when life hits a rough patch.
And she’s going to need that experience.
At the beginning of June, the Greenlandic representative for children, youth and families, Maasi Pedersen, was summoned to a press conference – a meeting steeped in clear frustration and great emotion over how bad the social sector is. It also prompted him to ask the rhetorical question: When do you declare a state of emergency?
In the press release about the new children’s spokesperson, Maasi Pedersen (IA) states.
– Stina has deep knowledge of the conditions, and not least the conditions for children in Greenland, and I have no doubt that Stina will meet the children at eye level in her function. he says.
Big shoes to fill
KNR met the former spokesperson, Aviâja Egede Lynge back in May, where she looked back on her ten years in the post.
Here she told how she and MIO, the children’s rights institution, were met with skepticism and strong reactions. But also that today the association’s role in society is no longer questioned.
On the contrary, she experiences that citizens themselves have begun to speak out about the problems around the country.
Her last task as children’s spokesperson was to present a report on new organizational initiatives, such as the establishment of a special complaints body for children, so that children can have their rights addressed in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.