20 Years of Legislation on Childhood in Argentina. Progress and Setbacks in Key Rights and Guarantees

GUEMUREMAN SILVIA

Toronto

Congreso; XIX ISA WORLD CONGRESS OF SOCIOLOGY; 2018

INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

In 1994 Argentina included the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)to its National Constitution. From that moment on, it became imperative toadequate the internal legislation to CRC?s standards and prerogatives. Multiplelegislative processes were activated. In terms of protection, and after severalfailure attempts, the 26.061 Law (of Integral Protection)was approved. Thus,different extreme situations of violation of rights became the subject of specialand exceptional measures of protection, many of which require the control ofjudicial legality by civil family judges. In 2015, the new Civil and Commercial Code(CCC) containing innovations relevant to children and adolescent came into force.Combining the law of protection, the CCC with other laws with interference inthe children and adolescent population (Sexual and Reproductive Health Law,Gender Identity Law, to name a few) has generated conflicts and tensions amongthe enforcement bodies, the institutions that make up the institutional frameworkand the intervening actors. Often, child and adolescent victims of severe rightsviolations are also perpetrators of disruptive behavior, and this activates criminaljustice intervention, even though children and adolescent are not punishable.Also, many of these children and adolescent are habitual substance abusers,and their addict condition makes them ?sufferers? and lenders of therapeuticmeasures under the aegis of the National Mental Health Law.The purpose of this communication is to focus on the analysis of the laws thatwere put in place to consolidate protection networks of rights oriented towardschildren and adolescent. This objective will be carried out through the analysis ofcases of children and adolescent that was intervened by the protection systemin the City of Buenos Aires. Through cases is intended to show the progress andsetbacks achieved, and the conflicts and tensions at stake in each of the levels ofintervention.