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Summary: General overview of Paraguay’s national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
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National Laws on Children’s Rights
Status of the CRC in National Law
Under Article 137 of the Paraguayan Constitution, the Constitution itself is the supreme law of the land and, below this, ratified international treaties, conventions and agreements including the Convention on the Rights of the Child take precedence over national legislation and other related domestic legal provisions. While the Convention is directly applicable in the courts, the Government has reported that it is infrequently used as such as a result of lack of awareness on the part of judges, lawyers, and other court personnel.
Constitution: The Constitution contains several provisions that specifically mention the rights and protection of children:
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Art. 54 establishes the obligation of the family, society and the State to ensure the development of the child and protection of its rights, which shall prevail in case of conflict with other rights
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Art. 56 promotes broad participation of youth in the development of the country.
Legislation: Paraguay's comprehensive Children's Act dates from 2001, and additional provisions that concern children's rights are contained in the Civil Code, Criminal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Labour Code. Other laws that relate to children's rights include, but are by no means limited to:
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Act No. 1136/97 on adoption
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Act No. 1600/00 on domestic violence
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Act No. 1938/02 under which unaccompanied children seeking asylum will be treated in accordance with the principle of best interest of the child
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Act No. 2861/06 restraining trade and commercial or non-commercial distribution of pornographic material, using the image or other representation of minors
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Act No. 1377/99 providing that birth registration and birth certificates are free irrespective of the age at which registration takes place
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Act No. 3587/08 on the protection of children and adolescents in the private education sector
Legal Research:
The National Assembly of Paraguay (Poder Legislativo) maintains an official website in Spanish (http://www.congreso.gov.py/) that offers the full text of approved and draft legislation (http://www.diputados.gov.py/ww2/#). The GlobaLex initiative at New York University has published an instructive guide to legal research in Paraguay (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Paraguay.htm), and both the U.S. Law Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/paraguay.php) and World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/py/) have assembled a selection of legal and government resources.
Case Law
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Case Law Research
Paraguay's Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia) maintains an official website in Spanish (http://www.pj.gov.py/) with a searchable database of full-text decisions.
Compliance with CRC
In its 2010 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed certain legislative developments, but regretted “that national legislation is not fully in conformity with the Convention in certain areas.” In particular, the Committee criticised amendments to the Criminal Code to reduce the penalties for child pornography-related offences, and worried that proposed amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure would run contrary to juvenile justice best practices.
In depth analysis:
The State has instituted a number of positive changes to its juvenile justice system, including new legislation to develop specialised institutions and processes for children, but a number of aspects of the system remain inconsistent with the Convention. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern about the use of detention as a preventative measure for children between the ages of 16 and 18, as well as the conditions in which adolescents serve sentences. Other recommendations have focused on training specialist judges and public defenders, and developing specialised juvenile justice mechanisms that include probation, community service orders and suspended sentences.
Violence against children is another area highlighted in the Committee's Concluding Observations. The Committee has expressed particular concern at reports of cruel and degrading treatment affecting children deprived of their liberty, and recommended that the State properly investigate these allegations and develop measures to combat the impunity with which perpetrators operate. The Committee has also been critical of the absence of explicit prohibitions on corporal punishment in schools, the home, penal institutions and in employment. The Committee has recommended that the State pass legislation explicitly prohibiting such treatment and set up a monitoring system to ensure that abuse of children by professionals does not occur.
Child labour in the form of the Criadazgo system (unpaid domestic servitude) is also an area of national law that is incompatible with the CRC. The Committee has recommended that the State pass legislation to create a criminal offence in relation to these practices.
Current legal reform projects
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any current legal reform projects.