What is emancipation?
The emancipation is applied within-family civil judicial field and allows the over 16 and under 18 to have their person and property as if it were of legal age. As an exception, it is provided that, until the emancipated person reaches the age of majority, you may not borrow, encumber or transfer real estate, commercial or industrial establishments or assets of extraordinary value (such as jewelry) without the consent of your parents, or in the event that both are missing, from the guardian who has been appointed to you. Most of the emancipations take place to be able to or to contract marriage before the 18 years. In the case of those emancipated by marriage, to carry out the aforementioned actions, if their spouse is of legal age, it will suffice that both consent. If both are minors, they will need the consent of the parents or guardians of both.
Judicial emancipation in criminal matters, whose approach is new within our legislation, since it is currently only within the civil sphere. This could be applied upon issuance of the rule, to impose on adolescents over the age of sixteen when they are found criminally responsible for the commission of serious punishable acts (Homicide, extortion or Kidnapping) or when they are repeat offenders in the commission of other crimes. The application of emancipation would take place within the imposition of the sanction hearing, or in the reading of the judgment in the event of all the stages of the oral trial. For the application of judicial emancipation in criminal matters, the physical and mental development of the adolescent will be taken into account. Once judicially emancipated, the young person would have the category of PRECIUDADANO, who, if he incurred a new punishable act,would be subject to imprisonment, but the penalty to be imposed would be 50% to be applied to an adult, when it exceeds eight years in prison, or the percentage of the penalty to be applied will reach 16 years or more, but the maximum penalty to be imposed may not exceed 18 years in prison. The Pre-citizen would serve the sentence imposed up to the age of 21 in a specialized center, where he would receive compulsory education in basic primary, basic secondary, baccalaureate and professional technique. If upon reaching the age of 21 and have not served the sentence, the sanction in a special place of one of the country's prisons where he would continue his studies or compulsory work in the workshops would end.or applied the percentage of the penalty to be imposed will reach 16 years or more, but the maximum penalty to be imposed may not exceed 18 years in prison. The Pre-citizen would serve the sentence imposed up to the age of 21 in a specialized center, where he would receive compulsory education in basic primary, basic secondary, baccalaureate and professional technique. If upon reaching the age of 21 and have not served the sentence, the sanction in a special place of one of the country's prisons where he would continue his studies or compulsory work in the workshops would end.or applied the percentage of the penalty to be imposed will reach 16 years or more, but the maximum penalty to be imposed may not exceed 18 years in prison. The Pre-citizen would serve the sentence imposed up to the age of 21 in a specialized center, where he would receive compulsory education in basic primary, basic secondary, baccalaureate and professional technique. If upon reaching the age of 21 and have not served the sentence, the sanction in a special place of one of the country's prisons where he would continue his studies or compulsory work in the workshops would end.If upon reaching the age of 21 and have not served the sentence, the sanction in a special place of one of the country's prisons where he would continue his studies or compulsory work in the workshops would end.If upon reaching the age of 21 and have not served the sentence, the sanction in a special place of one of the country's prisons where he would continue his studies or compulsory work in the workshops would end.
The Citizen would be entitled to the prerogatives established by reduction of penalties for adults and described in Law 599 of 2000 and 906 of 2004.
Related proposals in the Latin American region:
Currently, there are many Latin American countries in which adolescents are already tried who commit atrocious crimes or are repeat offenders in punishable acts, which are judicially treated as adults. This means that the problem of increasing juvenile delinquency is not Banned only for Colombia but for the entire Latin American environment and for this reason we will see below some examples of the steps that are being taken for the judgment of adolescents as adults, but that do not take into account the figures of judicial emancipation in criminal matters and that of the citizen as dissuasive invoices for the commission of future punishable acts.
Ecuador: In Ecuador, people who have not reached the age of majority, that is 18 years, are subject to the Juvenile Code, being unimputable for the crimes stipulated in the Penal Code that governs adults.
However, from the Prosecutor's Office it has been argued that the imputability of young people from 16 to 18 years of age is necessary to counteract the participation of minors in some cases of murders and hired assassination. Hence, the prosecutor Pesántez presented to the National Assembly a legal project that, among other reforms to the Penal Code, states that "minors between 16 and 18 years of age will be subject to ordinary criminal jurisdiction, after a declaration by the Judge of the Childhood and Adolescence in which it establishes that such minors have acted with discernment in the execution of the crime ». The proposal adds that minors between the ages of 16 and 18 who are sentenced must serve their sentence in specialized centers for adolescent offenders until they reach the age of majority,after which they will pay the rest of the sanction in a common jail.
Pesántez's position, however, has not received the support of the government authorities themselves. In principle, the prosecutor worked with the Minister of Justice, José Serrano, in the elaboration of a joint legal project of penal reforms, but finally the minister resolved to present a proposal for a law that does not include imputability on behalf of the Executive Power juvenile. The Executive bill proposes to toughen penalties for adults who use minors in the commission of crimes.
Along with other penal reforms, it is also proposed to sanction adults who hand over weapons to minors with a sentence of between 12 and 16 years in prison.
Panama: Panama: children from 12 years old will be tried as adults. The Congress of that country approved last February the law that reduces the age of criminal responsibility in minors. The Panamanian Parliament approved the law that will allow minors from the age of 12 to be tried as adults and imprisoned, depending on the type of crime they commit.
With 38 votes in favor and 17 abstentions, the plenary session of the National Assembly approved in the third debate a controversial draft Law on the Special Regime of Criminal Responsibility for Adolescents. With the new project, the maximum sentence for minors is maintained at 12 years in prison, but the age at which a minor can be prosecuted falls from 14 to 12 years.
In addition, parents or those who exercise parental authority over those who have not reached that age must respond civilly for the actions of their children. The law was passed by President Ricardo Martinelli, who promised in an electoral campaign a tough hand to end crime rates.
Dominican Republic: Minors would be tried as adults, according to a law proposal.
A draft amendment to the Code for the Protection of Children and Adolescents was introduced to the Chamber of Deputies, which would allow minors under 18 years of age to commit horrendous crimes or re-commit robberies, murders and drug trafficking as adults. The initiative has been presented by the deputy of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) for the National District, Alejandro Montás. The project establishes modifications for law 163-05, which creates the aforementioned code, which only contemplates a maximum sentence of five years of imprisonment for minors, regardless of the magnitude of the crime committed. For Montás the criticizable not only how benign are five years in prison as a sentence for certain crimes,instead, the boy who commits it has the possibility of being released from prison in two years with the fact of showing good behavior. The project establishes that those between 16 and 18 years of age who commit crimes that are not considered “horrendous” and in which recidivism is not proven, are punished with five to ten years in prison. While those who commit crimes being between 10 and 15 years of age, should be punished with a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, according to the proposal.they must be punished with a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, according to the proposal.they must be punished with a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, according to the proposal.
United States: minors tried and imprisoned as adults in the United States. In the United States, there is a judicial system and detention centers for minors, but most states allow minors to be tried by the adult system, depending on their age or the nature of the crime committed. Campaign for Juvenile Justice ', which fights against this practice, around 200,000 young people are tried each year, convicted or imprisoned as if they were of legal age.
The Savior:Great debate for tougher penalties for juvenile delinquents. A young man with less than six months to reach the age of majority -18 years-, is being prosecuted for having recently murdered a student from a capital institute. The murder was recorded in images by a photo-reporter from a local outlet. The images of the perpetrator stabbing his victim have caused more terror than usual in this country, the most dangerous in Latin America. The murderer could only serve a maximum sentence of 7 years in a detention center for young people who are against the law. Had he been tried as an adult, he could have been sentenced to 30 years in prison. - Another 15-year-old boy was recently sentenced to 5 years after being found guilty of participating in the kidnapping of a woman;the victim was beaten and raped sexually. If he had been an adult, he could have been sentenced to up to 75 years in prison.- These are only two cases of the 12 or 13 murders and other serious daily crimes that occur in El Salvador, but they have had great prominence in the local press, which It has served as a catalyst in the debate about the advisability or not of increasing penalties for juvenile delinquents, especially raising the maximum sentence from 7 to 15 years of age. - The debate is in vogue due to the confrontation that has been generated between the Executive and the Legislative since on February 11 the Legislative Assembly reformed the Juvenile Criminal Law, which established a maximum sentence of 15 years of internment for young people between 16 and 18 years of age who have committed serious crimes, between homicides and kidnappings.- The deputies approved the reform on the assumption that the increase in penalties would become a deterrent to the commission of crimes. However, a few days later, on February 25, President Mauricio Funes decided to veto the reform to the article that stiffens penalties in the Juvenile Penal Law, considering it unconstitutional and incompatible with international conventions signed by El Salvador. On March 11, the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) and Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) parties attempted to overcome the presidential veto, but failed, given that their joint effort did not reach the 56 votes required to bypass the veto. The FMLN has 35 votes and ARENA, 20.
To reinforce the concepts of JUDICIAL EMANCIATION IN CRIMINAL MATTERS and establish the figure of the pre-citizen, articles 315 and following, related to emancipation, of Law 57 of 1887 will be amended or added. This proposal is in line with the imminent need to establish criminal policies that include adolescents for their real resocialization and education. The sanction more than a punishment is a means provided by the State to remove minors who violate the Criminal Law from the clutches of crime, training citizens to contribute to society after the process, which of course must be in a closed environment.
