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Ecuadorian organizations reject children’s criminalization

Quito, Jan. 22 (Prensa Latina) More than 50 Ecuadorian civil society organizations rejected the criminalization of children and adolescents in the context of the security crisis that occurred during the recent presidential debate.

The event was broadcast last Sunday by national media and began by asking the candidates if they would agree to prosecute minors who commit serious crimes as adults.

“It is unacceptable that in a space intended to outline serious proposals a question with an openly unconstitutional and anti-conventional approach is formulated,” said civil organizations in a statement released Tuesday.

The organizations indicated that the question is contrary to the principles of the Doctrine of Comprehensive Protection of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents, recognized in the Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the American Convention on Human Rights, and other international instruments.

According to the organizations, the question was “inappropriate, impertinent and irresponsible,” especially given the recent forced disappearance and murder of four Afro-descendant minors in Guayaqui. It gave free rein to “stigmatizing discourses that criminalize impoverished, racialized and marginalized children and adolescents, while also promoting an ideological position aligned with that thinking” from a group of candidates, who presented archaic, heavy-handed discourses condoning the regression of rights, such as the death penalty (abolished more than 100 years ago), life imprisonment or the relaxation of judicial guarantees.

The social groups criticized the National Electoral Council’s (CNE) “reductionist and punitive” position and the Debate Committee in the face of a security crisis, the complexity of which demands much deeper analysis and responses. They also considered that attention was diverted from the crisis’s real triggers, such as the loss of the State’s capacity for action, inequality, limited access to opportunities, and the lack of comprehensive policies to protect children and adolescents.

In the presidential debate, most of the 16 candidates supported strict policies against organized crime.

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