Bill 72.

Summary.

The bill proposes to establish November 1 of each year as Children’s Day in the Republic of Panama. To do so, Art. 1 amends Article 1 of Law W 56 of December 15, 2004, and sets out the wording that provision would have. The date is designated as an annual observance: the words “of each year” are part of the provision the bill would place in the amended article. The proposed Spanish designation refers jointly to boys and girls and locates the observance in the Republic of Panama.

The change is made through replacement of the content of Article 1 of the law identified in Art. 1 of the bill. The proposed wording establishes the specified day under the Spanish name Día del Niño y la Niña, rendered here as Children’s Day. The legal change therefore concerns the date, the observance’s annual character, and its designation. The proposed article directly establishes the commemorative day as part of Law W 56 of December 15, 2004. Under the bill, the declaration would accordingly be incorporated into Article 1 of that law through the proposed amendment.

Art. 2 identifies the scope of the amendment again: it provides that this law amends Article 1 of Law 56 of December 15, 2004. This provision names the law and the article affected after Art. 1 sets out the replacement wording. Both articles address the same legislative change to Article 1. The first states how that article would read, while the second declares which legal provision is being amended. The bill thus includes an express reference to the amended law within its operative provisions, alongside the proposed text of the amended provision.

Art. 3 governs commencement. It provides that this law would take effect on the day following its promulgation. That commencement provision applies to the law containing the amendment to Article 1 and the declaration of Children’s Day. The proposed commencement date and the annual date of the observance serve different functions in the bill. The former determines when the amendment would begin to operate; the latter identifies the day that the amended article would establish in each year. The bill places these matters in separate articles, following the provisions that set out and identify the amendment.

The bill’s institutional and territorial references center on the Republic of Panama and Law 56 of December 15, 2004, which Art. 1 also cites as Law W 56 of December 15, 2004. Given its subject matter, the declaration could be of interest to public bodies concerned with children and to social sectors working with boys and girls in the Republic of Panama.