Page 11 of 30 Section 25(b) of the 1960 Act (which was not applied in the present case) provided that the local authority also had to intervene if a minor needed corrective measures because of his criminal, immoral or otherwise asocial behaviour. 36. As regards section 25(a), the preparatory work to the 1960 Act stated, inter alia, the following (translation from the Swedish): "In the future too, an important reason for intervention must be that a minor is exposed to physical maltreatment. The specific reference to this in the text of the statute seems to some extent to obscure the importance of the fact that children and young persons must also be protected from other kinds of treatment which may be harmful to their bodily or mental health. For this reason, the Bill instead makes it a prerequisite for intervention that the minor is being maltreated in his home or that he is otherwise treated there in such a way as to endanger his bodily or mental health. This amendment in relation to the law now in force does not aim at bringing about any material change. Reasons for intervention, except for physical maltreatment, may be such as are given as examples in the preparatory work to the legislation now in force: for instance, that a child, who is perhaps being cared for with great tenderness, is all the same continuously exposed to mortal danger owing to his mother’s mental illness, or that an infant is being cared for by a mother who is suffering from tuberculosis in a contagious state. Further examples may be that the minor is obliged to do work that is unreasonably hard considering his age or his strength, that he does not get enough to eat and is for that reason clearly undernourished, or that his home environment is marked by a considerable lack of hygiene. According to the practice that has been applied hitherto, it should also be possible to intervene in those instances where the parents perhaps because of their religious convictions - omit to give the child the medical care and treatment that he needs. Among the cases where children are exposed to mental injury or danger may be mentioned the one where parents - with evident symptoms of mental abnormalities or of pathological attitudes - bring up their children in a way, as the committee puts it, that includes a kind of spiritual error and which often in the end causes their personality to develop in an undesirable way. When such upbringing has the result that the child’s mental health is endangered, it comes under the section now dealt with. For an intervention under section [25(a)] of the 1960 Act to be permitted, there must be a danger of the child’s becoming a misfit because of his parents’ vicious way of life or their negligence or inability to educate the child. The provision in question thus concerns abnormalities in the parents or in their capacity to educate; it lays down that those abnormalities should be such as to endanger the child’s social development. Parents and other custodians should be treated on equal terms in this respect. Otherwise only amendments of a formal nature seem to be required. Thus, it is suggested that the words ‘vicious’ and ‘negligence’ be replaced by the expression ‘unsuitability as custodians’, which seems more appropriate in this context. Obviously, the scope of this expression is somewhat wider than the one currently in use. Apart from ‘vicious’ and ‘negligent’ custodians, it thus also covers those suffering from serious mental abnormalities. There seems to be no reason to object to this enlargement of the field of application of this rule. Society should be entitled to intervene as soon as there is a danger of a young person’s unfavourable social development owing to shortcomings in the custodian. Since the notion of ‘misfit’, as the committee has found, should be excluded from this legislation, the intervention of the Child Welfare Board has instead been made subject to the prerequisite that the development of the young person is in jeopardy. This means that intervention shall take place whenever needed to prevent such abnormalities of behaviour as are indicated under section [25(a)]. It should be pointed out that, just as is the case under the law now in force, an intervention does not require that there have so far been any signs of maladaptation in the young person in question." (Reproduced in NJA II - Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv, "Journal for Legislation" - 1960, pp. 456 et seq.) 2. Under the 1980 Act 37. Conditions for compulsory care under the 1980 Act are set out in section 1, which reads (translation from the Swedish): "Care is to be provided pursuant to this Act for persons under eighteen years of age if it may be presumed that the necessary care cannot be given to the young person with the consent of the person or persons having custody of him and, in the case of a young person aged fifteen or more, with the consent of the young person. Care is to be provided for a young person if: 1. lack of care for him or any other condition in the home entails a danger to his health or development; or 2. the young person is seriously endangering his health or development by abuse of habit-forming agents, criminal behaviour or any other comparable behaviour. ..." 38. The following are extracts from the preparatory work to the 1980 Act, as reproduced in NJA II http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?sessionId=60525252&skin=hudoc-en&a... 10/13/2010