Summary:
This law establishes a protection regime for children and adolescents, which includes norms on family and community life (education, sport, and culture), guardianship, adoption, among other rights.
Description:
The law is aimed at fully protecting children and adolescents. Among its provisions, the Statute provides that:
- A child is a person up to twelve years of age; while an adolescent is a person between twelve and eighteen years of age. In specified cases, the law will exceptionally be applied to people between eighteen and twenty-one years old.
- Children and adolescents have all the fundamental rights inherent to the human person under the principle of full protection to ensure their physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social development, under conditions of freedom and dignity.
- Children and adolescents have the right to protection of life and health through the implementation of public social policies that allow a healthy and harmonious development, respecting their psychological and moral integrity (article 7).