Bill 176.

Summary.

The bill amends Article 1 of Law 244 of 2021 to provide that the National Official Sex Offender Registry System (Sistema Nacional de Registro Oficial de Ofensores Sexuales) contain detailed information on adults convicted, or serving sentences, under final judgments. It covers offenses against sexual freedom and integrity in their various forms, trafficking of minors, and trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation. The bill proposes that the information form a publicly accessible database for situational crime prevention and for issuing certificates of non-sexual-offender status.

Through its amendment to Article 3 of that law, the bill places the system under the Personal Records and Identification Office (Gabinete de Archivos e Identificación Personal) of the Judicial Investigation Directorate (Dirección de Investigación Judicial). It requires that office to keep the database current and store it securely. The information entrusted to the office concerns adults convicted, or serving sentences, under final judgments for any of the offenses listed in Article 1. The provision links administration of the database to situational crime prevention.

The amendment to Article 13 provides for access to information in the system through a website or web platform created by the Personal Records and Identification Office of the Judicial Investigation Directorate. The amendment to Article 14 makes the information supplied by that office from the system publicly available. For the certificates of non-sexual-offender status referred to in Article 1, it provides that the interested person arrange for issuance in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 of the same law. The bill thus addresses public access to registry information and the individual process for obtaining a certificate.

In amending Article 15, the bill specifies the purposes for which information supplied by the Personal Records and Identification Office of the Judicial Investigation Directorate under the law may be used. It provides for use in situational crime prevention and by justice officials and their auxiliary personnel in the corresponding judicial investigations. Article 6 identifies the provisions of Law 244 of October 3, 2021 that the bill amends; the preceding articles set out amendments to Articles 1, 3, 13, 14 and 15. Article 7 provides that the proposed law take effect upon promulgation.

The bill concerns the Judicial Investigation Directorate, administration of the National Official Sex Offender Registry System, and justice officials. It may also be of interest to people requesting certificates of non-sexual-offender status, people consulting the system's public information, and people included in the registry. The initiative is before the National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) in Panama (Panamá), through the Government, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Committee (Comisión de Gobierno, Justicia y Asuntos Constitucionales).