Havana, March 29 (ACN) The protection of children and adolescents is high on version 24 of the Family Code bill, which includes affection and solidarity as new bases of relations with children.
The statement was made by Ana Maria Alvarez-Tabio, professor of the Law Faculty at the University of Havana during a panel held at the International Congress on Research about Children, Adolescents and Youths.
The professor said that the new bill encompasses a radical change about the conception of children and adolescents as subjects of protection, transforming them from vulnerable and in need, according to the paternalistic view, to active subjects of rights with more effective materialization.
The bill—said the expert—includes instrumental elements for the social life of the minors, including the respect for their condition of being persons in development, the wipe out of their classification as incapable subjects, the acknowledgement of their progressive autonomy and their right to participation.
Also included in the project is the possibility that children exercise their rights by themselves in tune with their maturity and particularities, as well as the obligation of the parents and other adult persons to guide them in this mission, said the professor.
Important enough is the participation of the state in designing and establishing policies that protect the children integral participation. Cuba assumes this new paradigm according to the Constitution of the Republic and the Convention for the Rights of the Child, which include the children’s right to identity, to live and grow in the family and their protection against violence.
The Family Code bill is currently under debates by the Cuban people throughout the country until April 30.