Within the framework of its legal power to “issue reports and recommendations aimed at the promotion or protection of children’s rights” and the institutional project “My Voice in the Constitution”, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children sent a Letter to the presidencies of both corporations of Congress, which provides recommendations to advance legislatively in the voluntary participation of adolescents aged 16 and 17 in the Plebiscite National Constitutional approval or rejection of the proposal for a new Constitution.
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It should be noted that this is not the first time that the autonomous institution raises the petition to Congress since, in May 2020, before the entry plebiscite was held, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children recommended in the same way that “the right to vote for adolescents from the age of 16 be recognized, in voluntary terms”, a request that had no response from the Legislative Branch and, “unfortunately,” it is maintained in this new requirement, “the initial plebiscite did not have the possibility of suffrage for adolescents.”
The need to give effect to the right to participation that adolescents have, through the vote, was also deepened in Bulletin No. 1 of the project “My Voice in the Constitution”, which addressed with greater specificity the participation of children and adolescents in the Constitutional Convention.
“In these different recommendations we have emphasized the importance of children and adolescents being able to have spaces for participation and access to relevant information in the constitutional process, being in this key the electoral process itself. Just as it was possible to consolidate historical advances in participation in terms of gender parity and people from indigenous peoples, the great challenge will then also be to consolidate the participation of children and adolescents,” says Patricia Muñoz, Ombudsman for Children.
In addition, it points out that this recommendation is raised by virtue of the importance of society finally recognizing and treating children and adolescents as subjects of rights and citizens. “Adolescents were a key social actor in the mobilizations prior to the beginning of this process,” he adds.
Among the arguments of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children contained in the document sent to Congress, it stands out that, according to data from the Opinion Study of Children and Adolescents (2019), 72% of adolescents between 16 and 17 years old would have liked to participate in the entry plebiscite. In addition, it is noted that, at the international level, countries that have recognized the right to adolescent suffrage have done so from the age of 16.
On the other hand, the constitutional process itself has promoted a series of instances of participation and access to information that have allowed their participation in hearings, councils and sponsorships of popular initiatives of constitutional norms. In the latter, more than 21,295 adolescents over 16 years of age participated.
In this way, the Office suggests that the Legislative Branch “urgently adopt” what is recommended, allowing the vote from the age of 16, in order to meet the deadlines established in the constituent process. “This initiative, if successful, implies allowing the effective exercise of the right to participation to 485,684 adolescents, who would be entitled to exercise, voluntarily, their right to voluntary suffrage in the exit plebiscite and thus be part of this historical process that they promoted,” says the document, to conclude.
