A CRUCIAL GOAL WITHIN HUMAN RIGHTS
Law
#8654: The Rights of Children and Adolescents with the purpose of
eliminating physical punishment and humiliation towards underaged
persons.
On September 1st Law #8654 has celebrated its first year of validity.
Since the ratification of the Convention of the Rights of Children
in 1990 Costa Rica has faced a long way until incorporating the content
of this Convention in its legislation.
Since 1990 new laws have been developed and have initiated a radical change within the rights of underaged persons.
Law #8654 has been a significant step for the protection of children
rights as physical punishment and humiliation are a violation of the
law.
This law consists of two articles. The first imposes that a child has
the right to attend education, health care and access to jurisdictional
council. The second one constitutes the parental authority as
inhabitant of rights and duties at the same time. The parental
authority has the right and duty to educate, take care of and
discipline its children, but does not include at all using physical
violence or humiliation to fulfill this task.
In order to establish Law #8654, the government of Costa Rica is given
impulses to carry out new projects seeking for a responsible way to
educate children in address to the parents.
In order to enforce this process, Fundacion PANIAMOR has started
several projects which integrate the population in this development.
This is realized by cooperating with local institutions and by forming
alliances with religious groups and with communities.
