The Children’s Bill of Rights: the 27 rights

It is Article 2 of Act No. 338 of 31 December 1998, as amended by Act No. 141 of 23 September 2010. In it the State declares that, fully aware that it is its responsibility to achieve the maximum development and welfare of all the country’s children, every child in Puerto Rico shall have a right to the twenty-seven things the Act lists. It is not a programme you apply for or a benefit: it is a declaration of rights used as a reference in courts, agencies, schools and childcare establishments.

It covers every child in Puerto Rico from birth to twenty-one years of age, and without prejudice to the laws in force. That last phrase matters: the Bill does not displace other laws, it adds to them. And the twenty-one ceiling is higher than civil majority, so people between eighteen and twenty-one remain covered by this act.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Up to twenty-one

   The Act opens by defining who it covers: every child in Puerto Rico, from birth to twenty-one years of age, and without prejudice to the laws in force. It is the fact that surprises most, because it does not match civil majority. If you are arguing for someone of nineteen or twenty in a context where this Bill applies, age is not an obstacle.

2. 2

   Step 2: Identity and family

   The first rights are about who the child is and where they live. They have a right to the effective force of the rights in the Constitution and in applicable laws and regulations; to receive both parents’ surnames at birth, or failing that the two surnames of the only parent who acknowledges them; and to live in a suitable environment in their parents’ home and in families where their physical needs are met, with the care, affection and protection that guarantee their full physical, mental, spiritual, social and moral development.

3. 3

   Step 3: Not removing them from home without a judicial process

   This is right number 6 and one of the strongest: not to be separated from their own home unless, through a judicial process, the separation is proven to be for the minor’s welfare and best interest. Where separation happens, number 7 obliges the State to take the necessary measures and plan permanently for their care. And number 8 sets the order of preference: the first alternatives to their own home must be a suitable relative’s home, an adoptive home or a substitute home where they receive the affection and care proper to their age and condition.

4. 4

   Step 4: The rights after abuse

   Three consecutive numbers protect a child who was a victim. Number 12 recognises the right to rebuild their life without the emotional pressure of establishing filial relations with the parent who subjected them to sexual abuse, where experts in human behaviour so recommend. Number 13 says they will not be returned to the home where they were a victim of maltreatment, exploitation, neglect or sexual abuse without an evaluation by competent human-behaviour professionals of the relevant government agency recommending it is in their best interest. And number 16 protects them from any act of abduction by a parent, relative or third party.

5. 5

   Step 5: Being heard and having someone represent them

   Number 14 gives the right, in court proceedings on matters affecting their status, condition or circumstances, to be heard and to receive due recognition, provided factors of age, capacity and maturity allow. Number 15 goes further: in custody and parental-rights-deprivation proceedings, where they were a victim of maltreatment, exploitation, neglect or sexual abuse, the court shall appoint a representative to look after their welfare and best interests. The Act spells out what that defender does: not only represent them in court, but press for the speeding up of proceedings in the public or private agency that must make the permanent determinations about their care.

6. 6

   Step 6: Name, image and protection

   Number 17 recognises confidentiality of their name and of circumstances identifying them in situations that could darken their honour or reputation, with an express exception: those who committed criminal activity and are at ages where Act No. 88 of 9 July 1986 classifies them as adults, if the information relates to the offences committed. Number 18 protects them from information and material harmful to their social, moral and spiritual development. And number 9 protects a child in a substitute home or facility: while there they have a right to educational, health and recreation services, and to be protected from maltreatment, neglect and exploitation.

7. 7

   Step 7: Adoption and ties that are not lost

   Number 10 says that, except where adopted by persons outside the family, the child may continue relating to those family members who are significant to them where the separation occurs through the death of a parent or through divorce, provided the relationship is in their best interest. Number 11 adds that an adopted child may retain all rights acquired by reason of their previous kinship as a member of an earlier family before the date the adoption decree was issued.

8. 8

   Step 8: Health, school and work

   Number 19 recognises the right to have necessary services provided in case of disability or special needs of their health condition, and 20 to receive adequate medical care for their physical, mental and emotional health and comprehensive prenatal and postnatal attention under the periodicity schedule in force as preventive measures. Number 24 obliges the State to limit and regulate work hours and conditions so they suffer no exploitation and their development is not harmed. And here is the qualifier worth reading in full: numbers 21, 22 and 23 — a safe environment in all teaching institutions, an education system that develops their personality and abilities, and means for recreation and extracurricular activities — are each closed with the phrase "as far as the State’s facilities permit". The Act wrote it that way and we do not remove it.

9. 9

   Step 9: The last three

   Number 25 recognises the right to be protected from the illegal use of controlled substances, tobacco and alcoholic drinks, and to have their use in the drug production, distribution and trafficking chain prevented. Number 26 calls for effective measures to protect them from activities involving sexual abuse and exploitation — the Act names prostitution and pornography — as well as from acts, ceremonies or rituals of any kind that may put them at risk of physical or emotional harm. And number 27 closes with an obligation on the State: to penalise the sale and trafficking of children.

There is nowhere to apply: it is not a procedure. The Bill is invoked where the matter is happening — before the court in a custody or parental-rights case, before the agency making determinations about the minor’s care, before the school or the childcare establishment. The compilation we read reproduces Article 2 and its twenty-seven rights; it contains no claim mechanisms or penalties, and so this guide describes none.

• Believing the Bill stops applying at eighteen: it covers birth to twenty-one.
• Citing the school and recreation rights without the phrase "as far as the State’s facilities permit".
• Not asking for the right-15 representative in custody and parental-rights cases where the minor was a victim.
• Accepting a removal from home without a judicial process: right 6 requires one.
• Assuming the Act creates a complaint procedure: the compilation read only lists rights.
• Forgetting right 8, which orders that a suitable relative’s home be considered before other alternatives.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración para el Cuidado y Desarrollo Integral de la Niñez (ACUDEN)

  ACUDEN

  docs.pr.gov

• Administration for the Integral Care and Development of Childhood

  acuden

  www.acuden.pr.gov