Rigmor von Euler was a pioneer of children’s rights and psychosocial welfare during the 1960s and 1970s. She was the first ever children’s ombudsman in Sweden.
Rigmor von Euler was born in 1914. She grew up in Värmland as the daughter of a forester. She studied in Stockholm where she initially gained her qualification as engineer at the Tekniska Institut (technical institute) in Stockholm in 1935. Two years later she gained her qualification as a social worker in 1937. She married Rolf von Euler in 1943. He was the administrative head of Uddeholms AB and Nordmark-Klarälven Järnvägar amongst other things. During the period when Rigmor von Euler she was a newlywed and mother of young children she lived in Hagfors. Her husband was promoted to head of personnel at Scania-Vabis in Södertälje in 1957.
Rigmor von Euler was active within various spheres: professionally as a school welfare officer in Stockholm; politically as a representative of Folkpartiet (the Liberal People's party) in Södertälje municipal council and as a member of Stockholm county council. She was also active on behalf of Rädda Barnen (Save the children). In 1973 she was appointed as the first ever children’s ombudsman in Sweden by the Rädda Barnen Riksförbund (national association). She was also active at an international level as the chair of the Swedish section of Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Préscolaire (OMEP).
During the second half of the 1970s and the early 1980s Rigmor von Euler participated in several national enquiries which sought to strengthen children’s rights to a healthy psychosocial childhood without corporal punishment, with provisions for education in their mother tongue, and comprehensive childcare. These enquiries concerned children’s accidents 1977-1979, serving as an expert in a study into children’s rights 1977-1983, and as chair of an enquiry into minority languages in preschools 1979-1982.
Rigmor von Euler’s contributions as a pioneer of children’s rights largely occurred within the framework of Rädda Barnen, which had made a declaration as regards children’s rights in 1923 already.
Rigmor von Euler died in Stockholm in 1990.
