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Summary: Mexico’s juvenile justice system is to undergo major reforms, according to a statement released this month by Angélica de la Peña Gómez, President of the Special Commission for Children.
[October 2005] - Mexico’s juvenile justice system is to undergo major reforms, according to a statement released this month by Angélica de la Peña Gómez, President of the Special Commission for Children. The proposed reforms consider the institutionalisation of young people as a last resort and a measure which can only be taken for young people over the age of 14. It also considers alternative measures for offenders such as social work. The reform of Article 18 of the Constitution aims to bring the states’ different laws for young offenders under a single law which takes as its framework the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Mexico in 1990. The states have nine months to implement the transition to the new model, which will mean creating new laws and institutions. Each state will be able to adapt the law according to its specific circumstances. The Commission also seeks budgetary support to implement the measures, "We are trying to convince the government that this is not an expense but an investment", said De la Pena. According to Mauricio González Oviedo, Public Policy Officer for UNICEF, Mexico, it is "mainly the poor who pass through the juvenile justice system". He says the system is discriminatory; it does not consider the social context of individuals and mixes young people who have committed serious crimes, such as murder, with those who have committed minor offences". This mixture is "an explosive cocktail", according to De la Peña, which creates more young criminals. For this reason, she says it is necessary to categorise the different types of crime and take proportional measures. Recidivism is "the fiercest critic" of the current system, she says. Out of 3, 506 minors imprisoned in 2003, 812 re-offended, according to government statistics. This follows the news of Argentina’s proposed reforms to the juvenile justice system last month, see: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6486 [Source: Cimacnoticias]