The Constitutional Court declared the claims filed by the Judiciary, National Prosecutor’s Office, Ombudsman’s Office and the Ayacucho Bar Association against Law No. 32330. In this way, it was determined that it is unconstitutional to incorporate adolescents of 16 and 17 years of age as criminal charges in the ordinary criminal system.
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With this, Law 32330 cannot be applied in the justice system and will be without effect. That is, the juvenile criminal system must continue to apply exclusively to people under 18 years of age.
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The referee interpreted that the Minimum age of criminal liability is 18 years, Therefore, adolescents of 16 and 17 years of age who are attributed with the commission of an infraction of the criminal law must be tried and punished in the juvenile criminal system, in the terms provided in the code of criminal responsibility for adolescents.
“Any normative reference that includes people from the age of 16 in the Criminal Execution Code must be understood to refer only to those over 18 years of age,” the TC specifies.
On the subject, it mentions that as long as there is no legislative reform, the hospitalization of adolescents aged 16 and 17 is governed by article 163 of the code of criminal responsibility for adolescents.
The statement specifies that all ordinary criminal proceedings initiated against adolescents aged 16 and 17 since Law 32330 came into effect must be archived.
“In the new processes, the prosecutor and family judge must determine the legal situation of the adolescents investigated, as well as the coercive measures applicable according to the specific case,” they detailed.
A report prepared by the Ojo Público portal revealed that almost a hundred adolescents have been held in prisons since Law 32330 came into effect.
The investigation details that in the El Milagro prison located in the La Libertad region, a total of 24 adolescents are isolated from the rest of the inmates, without access to education and living in precarious sanitary conditions.
Adolescents will be transferred to youth centers
He TC added in its ruling that adolescents 16 and 17 years old who are currently in penitentiary establishments governed by the INPE, They must be transferred immediately to the youth diagnosis and rehabilitation centers determined by the National Youth Centers Program.
From the Ombudsman’s Office indicated that the ruling of the TC guarantees the validity of international standards for the protection of human rights, particularly the rights of girls, boys and adolescents.
“This ruling corrects a situation that had caused adolescents to be prosecuted as adults, according to figures reported by the Judiciary based on information from the National Penitentiary Institute,” says the Ombudsman’s Office.
“It is relevant to specify that the definition of a child as any person under 18 years of age does not respond to an arbitrary agreement between States, but rather to technical criteria supported by neuroscience, recognized as an auxiliary source of law for the interpretation and application of special protection norms,” they added.
It is worth remembering that the measure was promoted by Alejandro Muñante with the support of the political parties. Popular Renewal, Popular Force, Avanza País, APP, Podemos Peru, inter alia.
