Child's Code: helping children access their rights

Gabriela Bucher - Country director, Plan Prog. Colombia

The Infants’ and Adolescents’ Code that came into force on May 8th, 2007 completely turned around the political and legal panorama on which the integral protection to 16 million underage Colombians was based on.

The different official instances and networks of non-governmental organisations have started a process to spread out and appropriate this Code. Nevertheless, efforts have not changed as quickly regarding the creation of the same actions with the leading players: The children.

With this is mind, in the field of  Alliances for Colombian Infancy,  Plan has started a building process with the participation of children and youngsters, in order to prepare spreading materials, so that they can learn about the scope of the new Law, discuss its contents, as well as acknowledge and assert their own rights, and make them applicable.

Caja magica children team.

Boys, girls and adolescents consider that the law can be made known through music, workshops, leaflets, theatre plays, and alternative media, among others. Based on this experience we are preparing a proposal for a Youth’s Law that will go along with the different working processes that are being carried out, both locally and throughout the country.