Representatives of children’s organizations from different parts of the country will converge next Wednesday in Congress to deliver a petition with which They will demand that the ruling party that Javier Milei responds to eliminate 70/2023 and the omnibus law from its DNU the measures that “they violate the rights of children and adolescents”.
The document that proposes a “strong rejection” of the adjustment policies and “regression in terms of rights” will come through a petition that also will be delivered to international organizations.
The immediate objective is “for all legislators to absolutely oppose” the two initiatives that are being debated in Congress, and also the anti-protest protocol of the Ministry of Security.
The space that promoted the initiative is the Childhood Articulation Table, which last Friday brought together representatives of a hundred children’s organizations, plus another 300 spaces and networks from different parts of the country. Some of them are Childhood and Territoryhe Forum for Childrenhe Serpajheaded by the Nobel Peace Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquiveland they also received the support of Nora Cortiñas and Taty Almeida, from Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line.
In the petition, “We argue article by article and point by point why these measures are regressive in matters of rights enshrined by the Constitution and international legislation”like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, pointed out to Page 12 Santiago Morales, sociologist and educator of Ternura Revelde.
The material that will be delivered to the presidents of each legislative block offers reasoning and demonstrations why it is considered that there is an afection, regression and violation of the rights of boys and girls.
Some of the criticisms
The organizations’ questions are as overwhelming as the number of modifications that the Government proposes. However, you can focus on some of them.
One of the most questioned is the article 332 of the omnibus law what relocates children as objects of State guardianshipthat is, it reimplements the criteria of the Board of Trustees. “This is serious because since Law 26,061 (Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Boys, Girls and Adolescents) there was no mention of children as objects of guardianship”Morales explained.
Therefore, he continued, its approval would imply “return to the Patronage Law (or Agote Law) of 1919, and to the doctrine of irregular situation”which gives children a repressive, charitable and controlling legal perspective that limits their rights, freedoms and guarantees.
In the articles 504 and 518 of the same project also reforms the so-called Law of the Thousand Days and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (IVE). “It reinstates notions and nomenclatures such as ‘the unborn child’ and ‘people with rights from the moment of conception’.” These modifications are not merely conceptual but “are to be the prelude to the repeal of these laws”he warned.
Morales considered that the elimination of these laws and the concepts included in both It will imply for children and adolescents a setback in their “view and conception that there were structural changes that could transform an unequal society into a more equitable one.” regarding gender.”
Against the possibility of “reinventing society”
The modifications to the Law of education It was also questioned because it incorporates that from the fourth grade onwards there is the possibility of non-face-to-face studies. “In other words, it enables ‘home schooling’ that It is only possible for certain social classes and it widely violates the right to participate in school as a public space for childhood.”Morales criticized.
More generally, the closure of the Institute of Theater and Arts Fundand the defunding of popular libraries It also leaves children’s organizations that rely on art in a weak situation.
“Culture and childhood are ways of speaking the same language that has to do with encounter, with reinventing society and looking at the world from other perspectives”added the sociologist who is a member of the Articulation table.
Another of the hardest blows that would be dealt both to the organizations and to the children and their families is in the punitive look. Not only because the intention to lower the age of imputability already expressed by the national government or by the return to the Board of Trustees, but also the prohibition of children being able to demonstrate against the restriction of some of their rights or those of their families.
This point is also included in the Patricia Bullrich’s anti-picket protocolwhich prohibits fathers or mothers from participating in a protest with their children. “It is an attack on the political participation of the boys and girls with whom we share militancy”he warned this newspaper Estela Rojas, member of Childhood and Territory.
With that prohibition, he added, “it goes back to the conception of a weak childhood incapable of thinking and expressing itself above the political subject that we organizations build with them”.
A blow to neighborhood organizations
But, in addition, the scope of the measures promoted by the government of Javier Milei in matters of health, education and the deepening of job insecurity among adults It will also strain the capacity of neighborhood organizations: “They are going to turn towards us a population that will need more assistance”said Rojas, whose social organization provides food, educational and work shelter to boys and girls from vulnerable families in Villa Fiorito, Lomas de Zamora.
And all this without mentioning the effect that the tariffs of public services and price increases of the food purchased by soup kitchens. “It will leave us with difficult operations”remarked the social leader.
The equation is simple: Unemployment, precarious work or low salaries hit the income of fathers and mothers, but they fall with all their force on the boys and girls of the house.. The lack of good nutrition as a result of the impossibility of buying products with free prices is suffered most by boys and girls. And when this happens – history demonstrates this – the population turns to social organizations.
The petition that the Children’s Articulation Table will deliver to national legislators highlights that ““The measures promoted by the Government are regressive in the entire range of civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights of children, adolescents and their families.”.
Furthermore, the statement adds, “it adopts xenophobic criteria that affect migrant children.” Therefore, after the visit to the Congress offices, the space confirmed that will begin “territorial and communication actions with the participation of children and adolescents throughout the country”, including joining the general strike called by the CGT.
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