Movimiento Movilizándonos mobilised in favour of the rights of children and adolescents in the Magna Carta.
While in the former National Congress, the Commission of Experts presented the preliminary draft and took over the Constitutional Council to develop the new proposal for the Constitution, in the Plaza de Armas organisations of the Movimiento Movilising ourselves mobilised for the rights of children and adolescents, demanding that the constitutional authorities include their social and political rights in the Magna Carta.
Source: Casona Communications
They were only able to get 2 blocks away from the constituent headquarters, which was surrounded by a large police contingent. But this was not an impediment for organizations that work for the rights of children and youth to raise their voices to request that they be considered in the proposal for a new Constitution.
“We want to say that children and adolescents are social actors, so they should be considered even in this constitutional framework, which we know has not had all the participatory processes that it requires. So, we call on the constituents now to really broaden this Constitution and for children to be social and political subjects,” emphasised David Órdenes, director of the NGO La Caleta and facilitator of the Mobilising Ourselves Movement.
The children’s organisations recalled that both the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Chile in 1990, and the Law on Guarantees of Children’s Rights, in force in our country since March 2022, recognise the participation of children and adolescents in everything that affects them and establish the State’s obligation to ensure the full development and comprehensive protection of their rights. Why they are concerned that the current constitutional draft does not include these aspects.
“The proposal does not include children’s rights, there is only one article. Therefore, everything has to be included so that children are finally protected. First, they have to be made visible and the territories have to be spaces of protection for children so that what the State installs in the territories has solid support and for this it has to have resources”, explained María Eugenia Pino, representative of Chile Derechos.
They called on the constitutional councillors to respect international agreements and the law in force in Chile, which recognise children and adolescents as social and political subjects.
“Children and young people have the right to participate in all the spaces where they live, and to recognise this and guarantee its exercise is also to protect their integral development,” illustrated Zarelli Fonseca, director of the NGO La Casona de los Jóvenes.
The Movement Mobilising for a Culture of Rights for Children and Adolescents in Chile is an articulation of various civil society organisations that has been working since 2005 for the recognition and guarantee of the rights of children and adolescents in Chile.
By Minga