Luis Almagro Secretary General - OAS Néstor Méndez Assistant Secretary General - OAS Teresa Martinez President - Directing Council of the IIN Víctor Giorgi Director General – IIN CREDITS AUTHORITIES
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PUBLICATION: Luis CoordinatorAlbernazof the Area of Promotion and Protection of Rights - IIN Daniela CoordinatorTupayachiofthe program for the consolidation of systems for the promotion and protection of children – IIN Lucía de los Bueis Consultant of the Area of Promotion and Protection of Rights – IIN Sara CoordinatorCardosoof the Communication and Information Area -IIN YOUNG AUTHORS: Members of the Regional Advisory Group on Child Adolescent Participation - GRAPIA Nikole Meza (Perú) Shifa Sarker (Canadá) CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AUTHORS: Organized Thematic Group Systems for the Promotion and Protection of Children and Adolescents (GOT SIPPINNA) Yeymy Marily Villeda Fuentes (Honduras) Ramón Ernesto Alejo Martínez (Honduras) Emily Elizabeth Barrera Tabora (Honduras) Ulises López Saucedo (Paraguay) Marcos Joel Cardozo Martínez (Paraguay) Camila Monserrath Espinoza Obregón (Paraguay) Emver Johan Córdova Carrera (Perú) Liz Azucena López Zamora (Perú) María Fernanda Joaquín Huamán (Perú) Felipe Cerini (Uruguay) CRÉDITOS PUBLICACIÓN IIN-OEA 2022
These rights include the right to receive information, to form their own opinion, to express themselves and to be heard, all of which is understood as the “right to participation”. At the IIN we have been advocating for the right to participation as one of the main focal points on the basis of which to build this new social position for childhood, and despite being often resisted from an adult rationale, it has gained increasing recognition in the region. However, this legal and discursive recognition is not always accompanied by institutional transformations and the development of opportunities that do, in fact, make the exercise and enjoyment of this right possible.
PROLOGUE
On 18 July this year, we celebrated the 44th anniversary of the entry into force of the American Convention. This is the legal instrument constituting what is known as the Inter-American Human Rights System, which creates and defines the functions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (within the universal United Nations System, 1989), there have been profound transformations in the ways in which children are perceived and the responsibilities of the adult world. This process has led to us now referring to the “human rights of children”.
The Inter-American System does not officially include the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN), despite the fact that it already existed. This can be explained by how child-related policies were conceived at that point in history, when children were not considered to be included in human rights, but, rather, linked to social welfare or charitable enterprises.
As part of this growing recognition, various agencies of the universal Human Rights System, the Inter-American System and national legal systems have enabled children and adolescents to express their views, requests, or complaints directly, and the Third Optional Protocol of the Committee on the Rights of the Child is a clear example of this.
However, when we observe the paths and procedures to gain access to being heard we discover that there are a number of obstacles, insofar as they are paths designed by and for adults.
It was in this context that the initiative emerged to draft a “child-friendly version” of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, which would make it possible for children and adolescents to gain access to it more readily.
In the same vein, in 2020, the OAS General Assembly, through its resolution AG/Res 2958 on the strengthening of democracy in the hemisphere, recognized the work carried out by the IIN and reaffirmed its mandate to “to expand and consolidate bodies within the OAS in which children and adolescents participate”.
Ourthem.experience
Over the last decade, the IIN has taken the effective right to participation as one of the central challenges of its institutional mission and a necessary condition for any policy that aspires to be considered as adhering to the rights-based perspective. This has led its Directing Council to create the Inter-American Programme for Child and Adolescent Participation, whose lines of work include the promotion of genuine participation of children and adolescents in institutional areas, including the IIN’s Directing Council and OAS bodies.
A quick look at the situation in the region as regards the relationship between the agencies of the Inter-American System and children and adolescents reveals a distance that is too great. A survey conducted by the IIN in 2021 among a total of 412 adolescents between 13 and 17 years old, from 18 different countries, showed that less than 20% were aware of the functions and tasks of the IACtHR and the IACHR; 50% knew of their existence, but not their functions, and 50% were totally unaware of of working with child and youth organizations enables us to determine that the language used in international human rights instruments is highly complex and difficult to understand for those who are not familiar with it, and even more when they are people under the age of 18.
The contents of this publication, which was produced in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and Guaraní, is the result of this process and seeks to be a contribution to the full exercise of citizenship by children and adolescents in the Americas.
What is a child-friendly version? When, as adults, we think of “childfriendly” text we usually imagine how children might speak and try to imitate them. It would appear that when we talk to children, adults should “become childlike”, but this exercise places as an interlocutor an image that adults have of children. Imaginary children, not real children with their own characteristics and the peculiarities of their cultures and background.
Victor Giorgi Director General. IIN-OEA Montevideo, julio 2022
This reflection caused us to design a methodology in which it is the children or adolescents themselves who handle the original text, identify and process its central ideas and rewrite them in terms that are understandable to them. This process involves multiple attempts and rewordings, and the intervention of a jurist to verify that the original meaning of the text is not distorted. It is a process in which the protagonists are the children and adolescents themselves, and adults provide support in their role as facilitators and advisors.
In this regard, the methodology used was to take 33 of the 82 articles of the Convention that focus on the human rights of every person and work on them, first, with the young people who make up GRAPIA, in order to, based on their discussions, choose the core ideas and concepts to be worked on with the children and adolescents of the GOTs. In this way, work was done on what the systems for the promotion and protection of rights consist of, what the inter-American system is, how it is composed, what human rights are, their importance, etc. After multiple working meetings, the contents of each of the 33 articles was made clear, sharing ideas and understanding each right, its scope and its importance. The
The American Convention on Human Rights (also known as the “Pact of San José, Costa Rica”), was signed on 18 July 1978 at the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human Rights and is one of the treaties of the Inter-American Human Rights System. It embodies the rights and freedoms that must be respected and promoted by the signatory States.
At the IIN-OAS we are convinced that child-friendly versions of documents such as this one bring children and adolescents closer to systems for the promotion and protection of rights, considering them not only as users, but as actors, as are the States, civil society and international organizations. This child-friendly version of the American Convention has been under development since 2019, as part of the activities planned for the “Programme for the consolidation of systems for the promotion and comprehensive protection of rights”, together with the Organized Thematic Group on Systems (GOT SIPPINNA, for its acronym in Spanish).
On this last point, it should be noted that the GOTs are groups of children and adolescents of the Americas who, through virtual events promoted, organized, and supervised by the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN) and supported by young people who make up the Regional Advisory Group on Child and Adolescent Participation (GRAPIA), discuss and carry out actions on issues that they themselves consider a priority and on which the IIN has been working. The aim of the GOTs is for children and adolescents to exercise their right to participate in safe spaces.
INTRODUCTION
Coordinator of the programme for the consolidation of systems for the promotion and protection of children and adolescents – IIN Lucía de los Bueis Consultant for the Promotion and Protection of Rights Area – IIN Montevideo, July 2022
result of this work is the document that is now in your hands, which has been designed and translated into the official languages of the OAS and Finally,Guaraní.wehope that this document will be disseminated and used in different areas as a work tool, in order to promote the right to information and access to justice, and to continue promoting the participation of children and adolescents in the Americas.
Daniela Tupayachi
At the IIN-OAS, we consider it essential to make a user-friendly version of this Convention available, insofar as the inter-American system and the Universal system are part of a single normative body, in which it is necessary to continue adding tools in a friendly format, so that children and adolescents have access to more information and can make use of and operate the relevant devices, both in the universal system (based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child) and in the inter-American system (based on the American Convention).
WHY PRODUCE A USER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION?1
METHODOLOGYWORKING2
This user-friendly version has been in development since 2019 at the initiative of the IIN-OAS’s programme for the consolidation of systems for the promotion and protection of the rights of children and adolescents, together with the organized thematic group on systems for the promotion and protection of rights and the Regional Child Participation Advisory Group. The main objective driving the production of a user-friendly version of this normative instrument was to empower children and adolescents in this area and bring them closer to the inter-American system of rights of which we should be part.
1 GRAPIA currently consists of young people aged between 18 and 25, from different countries of the Americas, who serve for two-year terms, ad honorem. These advisers are young people who in their childhood and adolescence accumulated a great deal of experience in issues involving participation as a right, principle and process, taking part in various networks, advisory councils and participation groups in their countries of habitual residence. Further information at: Grapia - Nuestra Voz a Colores [Our Colourful Voices]. In this regard:
• Fourthly, children and adolescents from the Organized Thematic Group on Systems were invited to work on the document, jointly coordinated by IIN-OAS technical staff and GRAPIA advisors, with the aim of presenting the tool, its usefulness, and the importance of having a friendly version.
Thirdly, the draft was shared with the Regional Child Participation Advisory Group (GRAPIA)1, so that the young people who compose it could have a first look at the document and add their comments and suggestions on how to make it more user-friendly. Thanks to their contributions and comments, a second draft of the document was obtained as well as different ideas on working with the consultation methodology to be used.
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• As a first step, 33 of the 82 articles of the Convention were prioritized, since the first 33 focus on the human rights of every individual.
• Secondly, a first draft of the Convention was produced in a userfriendly format, attempting to choose extracts containing the principal information in each of these 33 articles.
Accordingly, four Zoom video call meetings were held, in which 10 children from different parts of the Americas participated (Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), and after various readings, they contributed userfriendly drafting proposals to each of the 33 articles reviewed. Likewise, in view of the existence of technical and/or legal terms and concepts, it was considered appropriate to add a Glossary to accompany the document.
In this user-friendly version, we shall develop the articles in Part I and one article from Part II, in order to focus on the rights that, as established in this convention, all individuals have (including, of course, children and adolescents).
Finally, the American Convention, also known as the Pact of San José, Costa Rica, was signed at the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human Rights and applies to the States of the Americas that signed it, as from 18 July 1978.
It contains 82 articles, grouped into three parts and eleven chapters, as follows: Part I: State Obligations and Rights Protected Part II: Means of Protection Part III: General and Transitory Provisions
The American States signatory to the present Convention, - Reaffirming their intention to consolidate in this hemisphere, within the framework of democratic institutions, a system of personal liberty and social justice based on respect for the essential rights of man; - Recognizing that the essential rights of man are not derived from one’s being a national of a certain State, but are based upon attributes of the human personality, and that they therefore justify international protection in the form of a convention reinforcing or complementing the protection provided by the domestic law of the American States;
Reiterating that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free men enjoying freedom from fear and want can be achieved only if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights; and
Considering that these principles have been set forth in the Charter of the Organization of American States, in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that they have been reaffirmed and refined in other international instruments, worldwide as well as regional in scope;
Considering that the Third Special Inter-American Conference (Buenos Aires, 1967) approved the incorporation into the Charter of the Organization itself of broader standards with respect to economic, social, and educational rights and resolved that an inter-American convention on human rights should determine the structure, competence, and procedure of the organs responsible for these matters, Have agreed upon the following:
CONVENTIONAMERICAN3
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Obligation to Adopt the Provisions of Domestic Law ART.
1
Every person has the right to recognition as a person before the law. Right to Recognition of Legal Personality ART.
Where the exercise of the rights and freedoms referred to in article 1 is no longer ensured by the body of laws and regulations, the States Parties undertake to adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to those rights and freedoms.
Obligation to Respect Rights ART.
The States Parties to this Convention undertake to respect the rights and freedoms recognized in it and to ensure to all persons (human beings) subject to their jurisdiction the free and full exercise of those rights and freedoms, without any discrimination for reasons of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or any other social condition.
toRightLife
All persons have the right to have their physical, mental, and moral integrity respected. No one should be mistreated. When children or adolescents can be subject to criminal proceedings, they shall be separated from adults and brought before specialized tribunals as speedily as possible, so that they may be dealt with accordingly. Humaneto Treatment ART.
All persons have the right to have their life respected. The death penalty shall not be re-established in States that have abolished it. Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age; nor shall it be applied to pregnant women. Every person condemned to death shall have the right to apply for amnesty, pardon, or commutation of sentence. ART.
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Right
Every person has the right to personal liberty and security. No persons shall be deprived of their physical liberty except for the reasons and under the conditions established beforehand by the political constitution of the State Party concerned or by laws established in accordance with that constitution. No one shall be subject to arbitrary arrest or imprisonment. Every person deprived of liberty shall be entitled to recourse to a competent judge or court. No one shall be detained for debt. This principle shall not limit the orders of a competent judicial authority issued for non-fulfilment of duties of support.
Every person has the right to a hearing, with due safeguards and within a reasonable time, by a competent, independent and impartial judge or tribunal, previously established by law, in the substantiation of any criminal charge against them or the determination of their rights and obligations of a civil, labour, fiscal or any other nature. Every person accused of a criminal offence has the right to be presumed innocent so long as their guilt has not been proven according to law (no one is guilty until proven guilty).
Right Personalto Liberty ART.
7
Right to a Fair Trial ART. 8
No one shall be subject to slavery or involuntary servitude, which are prohibited in all their forms, as are the slave trade and traffic in women. No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
Prohibition of Slavery and Forced Labour ART. 6
All persons have the right to have their dignity respected. No one may be the object of arbitrary or abusive interference with their private life, their family, their home, or their correspondence, or of unlawful attacks on their honour or reputation. Protection of Honour and Dignity ART. 11
All persons have the right to be compensated in accordance with the law if they have been sentenced through a miscarriage of justice. Right CompensationtoART. 10
The Principle of Legality and Non-Retroactivity ART. 9
No one shall be convicted of any act or omission that did not constitute a criminal offence under the law at the time it was committed.
13
Freedom Conscienceofand Religion ART.
Freedom of Thought and Expression ART.
12
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one’s choice.
Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience and of religion. This right includes freedom to maintain or to change one’s religion or beliefs, and freedom to profess or disseminate one’s religion or beliefs, either individually or together with others, in public or in private. Parents or guardians, as the case may be, have the right to provide for the religious and moral education of their children or wards that is in accord with their own convictions.
Anyone injured by inaccurate or offensive statements or ideas disseminated to the public in general by a legally regulated medium of communication has the right to reply or to make a correction using the same communications outlet, under such conditions as the law may establish.
14
Everyone has the right to associate freely for ideological, religious, political, economic, labour, social, cultural, sports, or other purposes.
The right of peaceful assembly, without arms, is recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or public order, or to protect public health or morals or the rights or freedoms of others.
Freedom AssociationofART. 16
Right of Reply or Correction ART.
15
Right AssemblyofART.
All persons have the right to a given name and to the surnames of their parents or that of one of them. Right to a Name ART.
All children and adolescents have the right to the measures of protection required, on the part of their family, society and the State. Rights of the Child ART.
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. In case of dissolution (of the marriage), provision shall be made for the necessary protection of any children, solely on the basis of their own best interests. The law shall recognize equal rights for children born out of wedlock and those born in wedlock. ART.
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ofProtectionFamilies
Right NationalitytoART.
Right PropertytoART. 21
All persons have the right to the nationality of the State in whose territory they were born if they do not have the right to any other nationality.
Everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of their property. No one shall be deprived of their property except upon payment of just compensation, for reasons of public utility or social interest, and in the cases and according to the forms established by law.
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Every person lawfully in the territory of a State has the right to move about in it and to reside in it if the rules so permit. All persons have the right to leave any country freely, including their own. An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to this Convention may be expelled from it only in fulfilment of a decision reached in accordance with law. All persons have the right to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in accordance with the legislation of the State and international conventions, in cases where they are being pursued for political offences or politically related common crimes.
Freedom of Movement and Residence ART. 22
All persons are equal before law. Consequently, they are entitled, without discrimination, to equal protection of the law. beforeEqualitythe Law ART. 24
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All persons have the right to a simple and prompt procedure before the competent judges or courts, which protects them against acts that violate their fundamental rights recognized by the Constitution, the law or this Convention. ART.
All citizens shall enjoy the following rights and opportunities: (a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; (b) to vote and be elected in genuine periodic elections; (c) to have access, under general conditions of equality, to the public service of their country. ART.
ProtectionJudicial
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RightsPolitical
1 http://www.oas.org/en/sla/dil/inter_american_treaties_A-41_charter_OAS.asp DevelopmentProgressiveART. 26
The States Parties undertake to adopt measures, both internally and through international cooperation, especially financial and technical cooperation, to ensure that the rights deriving from the economic, social, educational, scientific and cultural standards set forth in the Charter of the Organization of American States, as amended by the Buenos Aires Protocol, are progressively achieved1.
Where a State Party is constituted as a Federal State, the national government of that State Party shall implement all the provisions of this Convention relating to matters over which it exercises legislative and judicial jurisdiction within its own territory.
Suspension of Guarantees ART. 27
In times of war, public danger, or other emergency that threatens the independence or security of a State Party, it may take measures suspending its obligations under the present Convention, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, or social origin.
ClauseFederalART. 28
Rules InterpretationofART. 29
No provision of this Convention shall be interpreted as suppressing, restricting or excluding the enjoyment and exercise of the rights and freedoms recognized in the Convention or restricting them to a greater extent than is provided for in it.
Scope Restrictionsof
The restrictions that, pursuant to this Convention, may be placed on the enjoyment and exercise of the rights and freedoms recognized herein may not be applied except in accordance with laws enacted for reasons of general interest and for the purpose for which such restrictions were established. ART.
30
Other rights and freedoms recognized in accordance with the procedures established in articles 76 and 77 may be included in the system of protection of this Convention1.
Relationship between Duties and Rights ART.
Recognition of Other Rights ART.
Article 77. 1. In accordance with article 31, any State party and the Commission may submit additional draft protocols to this Convention for consideration by the States Parties at the General Assembly, with a view to gradually including other rights and freedoms within its system of protection. 2. Each protocol shall determine the manner of its entry into force and shall be applied only among the States Parties to it
All persons have responsibilities to their family, the community and humankind. The rights of each person are limited by the rights of others, by the security of all, and by the just demands of the general welfare, in a democratic society.
Article 76. 1. Proposals to amend this Convention may be submitted to the General Assembly for the action it deems appropriate by any State Party directly, and by the Commission or the Court through the Secretary General. 2. Amendments shall enter into force for the States ratifying them on the date when two-thirds of the States Parties to this Convention have deposited their respective instruments of ratification. With respect to the other States Parties, the amendments shall enter into force on the dates on which they deposit their respective instruments of ratification.
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31
The following bodies shall have jurisdiction with respect to matters relating to the fulfilment of the commitments undertaken by States Parties to this Convention: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, referred to as the Commission, and, b) The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, referred to as the Court. articles explain the organization and functions of the competent bodies of the inter-American system, that is, the InterAmerican Commission and the Inter-American Court.
These articles explain the general and transitory provisions relating to signature, ratification, reservations, amendments, protocols and denunciation of the American Convention.
ART. 33 These
ART. 34 TO73
a)
ART. 74 TO82
COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE: Partial pardon which alters the nature of the punishment in favour of the offender.
AMNESTY: An official pardon by the State of a certain type of crime, which extinguishes the responsibility of its perpetrators.
Some terms to keep in mind that will help you in your reading:
STATE PARTY: A State which has consented to be bound by the treaty and for which the treaty is in force.
PROTECTION (writ of amparo in the Spanish-speaking world): A measure used in the legal sphere to protect rights or to benefit a person in need of such protection.
GLOSSARY
AMENDMENT: A procedure reviewing the provisions of an international treaty.
FEDERAL STATE: A State composed of various territorial units endowed with political autonomy and institutions of government common to them all, whose organization, mandates and intergovernmental relations are governed by a Constitution as the highest law in all legal systems.
ASYLUM: Protection that the State can afford to certain individuals, foreigners or stateless persons, who in their States of origin are persecuted for ideological or political reasons.
POLITICAL OFFENCE: Unlike ordinary crime, which damages legal property, political crime is committed against the political or domestic order of the State, and even when it attacks individual legal property, it is driven by political motives.
BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD: The principle that determines that all children and adolescents can exercise all of their rights, ensuring their comprehensive development and the power to express themselves and to make choices. When the authorities make decisions with regard to a child or adolescent, they must take into account the opinion of the child or adolescent and do what is best for their development and well-being.
PROTOCOL: A set of rules governing the way in which diplomatic relations are conducted.
INDEMNITY: Compensation for expropriation of property and rights. Indemnity is compensation for having caused damage either actively or passively to another person. The common form of compensation is money; therefore compensation is usually monetary.
RESERVATIONS: A unilateral declaration made by a State expressing its consent to be bound by a multilateral international treaty, with the aim of excluding or modifying the legal effects of certain provisions of this *Shouldtreaty.you wish to read the entire American Convention, you can download it at the following link: https://www.oas.org/dil/treaties_b-2_american_convention_on_human_rights.pdf
PUBLIC ORDER: A situation that enables the peaceful exercise of rights and the fulfilment of obligations, ensuring peaceful coexistence.
RATIFICATION: A procedure for expressing consent to be bound by the treaty.
JURISDICTION: The power, derived from the power of the State, to resolve personal conflicts of any citizen, using the law. Scope or territory in which that authority or power is exercised.
LEGAL ENTITY: A quality from which derives the aptitude to be the holder of rights and obligations and the recognition of legal capacity and capacity to act. It corresponds to any person, whether natural or legal.
