Land Board Child Protection Policy

The Land Board is the authorised processor of the cadastre, i.e. cadastral registrar. The function of the cadastral registrar is to register cadastral parcels, register restrictions and rights of use of land, and collect and process data necessary for the valuation of land.

An address describes and defines the location of an object in geographical space. In Estonia, the quality and accuracy of address data shall be guaranteed by local governments. All address data is managed in the Address Data System (ADS). ADS supports the maintenance of other datasets.

Child abuse can occur in all countries and in all societies. Land and property owners can be for different reasons children. Child rights over the property and real estate should be protected in economic transactions and registered in legitimate mode. Land Board takes special attention to protect childrens interests, as it can take many forms in any situation that a child may be in unfavorable position and needs protection. In order to prevent, report and support children and young people, Land Board has developed this child protection policy. A child safeguarding policy is developed through consultation with children right protection stakeholders.

Policy statement

Land Board work for children’s rights has an absolute duty to protect children from economic discrimination. Land Board therefore believes, that in order to prevent discrimination or address discrimination of a child or young person it is important to create an environment where:

• children are protected equally compared with adults;
• the data systems will give the adequate information for Land Board for improving children economic rights over property protection according to Estonian laws.

Risk assessment

Land Board risk assessment aims to determine whether a child report of economic discrimination concern needs further investigation and which service, response or level of intervention, is required to respond, taking into account organisational factors. Land Board determins risks as follows:

• children are not aware of their economic rights towards property and possible right protection measures.

Code of Conduct

This Code of Conduct includes guidance on ethical and proper standards of behaviour of adults towards children, and also of children towards other children. It has been developed with the best interests of the child as the primary consideration and should be interpreted in a spirit of transparency and common sense. Land Board aims for everyone, children and adults, to participate in a safe and protected way in Land Boards work and activities.

DO:

• Be aware what constitutes child discrimination and understand its provisions.
• Know signs of abuse and reporting any suspicious observations according children owned property transactions immediately to the police.
• Respect lines of authority and reporting procedures.
• Treat all children equally: be inclusive and involve all children without discrimination.
• Maintain high standards of personal and professional conduct both personally and in other situations.

• Encourage and respect children’s economic rights.

DON'T:

• At all times respect the confidentiality of children’s personal information.

• Do not discriminate, shame, humiliate, belittle, or degrade children.
• Do not act in any way that may be abusive or place others at risk of abuse.
• Do not condone violations of this code by others – staff, interns, consultants, etc.
• Do not be alone with a child in any circumstances that might be questioned by others.
• Do not request personal information if not required by laws for Land Board activities.

• Never guarantee confidentiality to a child.

Land Board data protection and communication

Children need particular protection when you are collecting and processing their personal data, because children may be less aware of the risks involved. Children’s personal data should be processed in Land Board systems and processed by Land Board data protection regulations. Children have the same rights as adults over their personal data. These include the rights to access their personal data; request rectification; object to processing and have their personal data erased.

Review

The aim of monitoring and evaluating the Child Protection Policy is to learn from practical case experiences, which will contribute to inform policy reviews and changes to the Child Protection Policy.

Land Board will regularly monitor the implementation of its Child Protection Policy and procedures. Progress, performance and lessons learned are reported by data protection specialist to the Land Board director annually. Monitoring and evaluation will be done by checking whether the standards from the Child Protection Policy are implemented and whether safeguards are working.

Next to the overall monitoring and evaluation of the Child Protection Policy, reactive monitoring will take place, after incidents have occurred, which will contribute to a learning process for Land Board and if necessary changes to the Child Protection Policy or other procedures and policies.