The courts specialized in violence against children will be launched this year, according to the minister
The Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, announced this Wednesday that her department is going to promote the first Youth Law in Spain, with four axes focused on political participation, mental health, economic rights and the ecosocial crisis, while ERC, PNV, Bildu and Junts have warned that there is a risk of invasion of jurisdiction.
“I announce that we are going to implement, that we are going to work on promoting what is going to be the first youth law in our country,” said Rego, this Wednesday during his appearance at the Youth and Children’s Commission in the Congress of Deputies.
According to the minister, the law will contemplate four fundamental axes: the axis of economic rights and social coverage, on issues that have to do with “employment, housing or public services”; an axis of democratic rights and political participation, to “guarantee the participation” of young people “in the political affairs of the country”; a mental health and well-being axis; and another axis related to the ecosocial crisis, intergenerational justice and the rights of future generations.
“A law, therefore, that has a broad and complete vision of the rights of youth,” Rego stressed, specifying that the law will be based on the Youth Strategy for the year 2030.
The minister explained that they have already begun to advance in some aspect in collaboration with the Youth Council of Spain and has expressed her desire for this law to have “a prior process of public participation of youth.”
“We want there to be a participatory process that configures a draft law that will finally, logically, already have the usual procedure that any proposed law has,” he stated. Likewise, she has suggested that the Congressional Youth and Children’s Commission serve “as a channel of political participation for the configuration of this previous draft.”
In this way, the minister has assured that they will begin “immediately” to “develop article 48 of the Spanish Constitution” which states that “the public powers will promote the conditions for the free and effective participation of youth in the development political, social, economic and cultural”.
However, when asked if it opens the possibility of voting at the age of 16, ministerial sources have specified that voting is regulated by the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) and not the Youth Law.
On the other hand, Sira Rego has also committed to fighting against child poverty that affects 27.8% of children in Spain, to promote a universal child-rearing benefit and to improve young people’s access to the Minimum Living Income, in coordination with the Ministry of Inclusion.
In terms of child violence, Rego has ensured the comprehensive development of the Organic Law for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence (LOPIVI) in coordination with other ministries and has announced that, in 2024, the courts specialized in violence against children, within the framework of the Organic Law of Organizational Efficiency of the Public Justice Service.
Likewise, he has announced that they are working on a Unified Registry of Social Services on violence against children and that they will carry out a study in 2024 based on 9,000 surveys of people between 18 and 30 years old to find out the prevalence of violence in childhood. beyond the sexual abuses in the Church analyzed in the Ombudsman’s report.
The minister has also referred to vicarious violence, which is exercised towards a child to harm the mother, and has indicated that they are waiting to be able to establish a coordination axis with the State Attorney General’s Office in an upcoming meeting.
Among its lines of work, Rego has also committed to promoting foster care as the first option in the care of children in the protection system and has said that they are supporting eight pilot projects with a budget of 35 million euros and working on a proposal with Social Security and the autonomous communities that they hope to have prepared “in the shortest time possible.”
During the reply, Popular Party representative Noelia Núñez told the minister that her Government “focuses its efforts on amnestying terrorists” instead of encouraging “young Spaniards to know who Miguel Ángel Blanco was and all the atrocities he committed.” their murderers, the terrorist group ETA, committed”. Regarding the youth law, he recalled that many communities already have their own law and has also referred to the high rate of child poverty, the “impossible mission” of emancipation and the high suicide rate among those under 30 years of age.
Meanwhile, the PSOE deputy Víctor Camino has stated that there are two ways of facing the perspectives of young people, “a melancholic, nostalgic, individualistic one that very well represents that right that wants everything to go wrong” or “the progressive, the social democratic, who knows that the future always agrees with progress”.
For her part, VOX deputy Blanca Armario asked the minister “what plan she has to fight against child poverty in Spain” and what measures she is going to take to protect minors under guardianship and to ensure that cases such as “minors” wards in the Balearic Islands will never happen again anywhere in Spain”.
Meanwhile, Sumar deputy Nahuel González has lamented that in a world in which young people achieve “milestones in music, in art, in poetry, on Twitch, like Ibai, in sports”, it seems that “the horizon is increasingly difficult”, with hopes “burdened by the material conditions of life” or a rent that “is a real shame”.
For his part, ERC deputy Jordi Salvador i Duch has warned that Catalonia has “absolute competence” over youth; He has shown his concern about the high rate of child poverty and has not been in favor of universal income “because Princess Leonor is not the same as another person.”
The Junts per Catalunya deputy Pilar Calvo has acknowledged that she has become “a little alarmed” because in Catalonia they already have a youth policy law since 2010 and has asked the minister “how they are going to respect the powers.” Furthermore, she has asked him to take advantage of the fact that the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, is “anti-bullfighting” to “prohibit the access of minors to bullfighting, as recommended by the United Nations.”
For her part, EH Bildu deputy Isabel Pozueta has referred to income guarantee systems and has asked that they be able to request them from the age of 18 and not have to wait until the age of 23.
The PNV deputy María Isabel Vaquero has also warned that Euskadi already has a youth law from 2022 and has insisted that it is an “exclusive competence.” On the other hand, she has requested an assessment on compliance with the LOPIVI and has shown her concern about the consumption of pornography.
Meanwhile, the Canarian Coalition deputy Cristina Valido has been interested in the degree of compliance with the LOPIVI and has shown her concern about “the data on suicides among young people.” “It is very serious,” she warned.
In response to the concerns of the deputies, Sira Rego has reassured them by ensuring “maximum respect for the area of ??competence” and added that they will be inspired by the regional youth laws. Regarding the LOPIVI, she has assured that it is “71% already fulfilled”, and with respect to bullfighting, Rego has stated that her commitment is to advance in that line of prohibition but she has recalled that it is a regional competence.
