Draft bill 165.

Summary.

The draft bill seeks to prevent gangs, unlawful associations, organized crime groups and criminal organizations from recruiting, exploiting or using children and adolescents. It links that purpose to continued education, family intervention, psychosocial care, community recovery and social reintegration. It defines youth recruitment by criminal groups, vulnerability to such recruitment and the early warning protocol. Its application would follow the best interests of the child, confidentiality, the minimum necessary intervention and a prohibition on treating poverty, appearance, residence, idleness or school dropout as grounds for criminal suspicion.

The bill adds those definitions to Article 5 of Law 285 of 2022. It also makes recruitment prevention part of the work of the System for the Guarantee and Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Sistema de Garantías y Protección Integral de los Derechos de la Niñez y la Adolescencia) and its targeted protection policies. It proposes new duties to approve national guidelines and the protocol, include programs, targets, indicators and financing in the national plan, and monitor results in priority areas. National coordination would include referral pathways, statistics that do not identify individuals and reports to the Governing Board (Junta Directiva). Institutions would activate the protocol when risk factors are objective, cumulative and verifiable, enroll affected children in support programs and coordinate care without presuming criminal affiliation. Justices of the peace would initiate referrals and immediately notify the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (Secretaría Nacional de Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia) in cases of serious threats or indications of criminal use.

The Interinstitutional Commission (Comisión Interinstitucional) would establish the Permanent Technical Working Group for the Prevention of Youth Recruitment by Criminal Groups (Mesa Técnica Permanente de Prevención de Captación Criminal Juvenil) to coordinate cases, assess territorial conditions and monitor responses. Technical representatives would come from the Ministry of Social Development (Ministerio de Desarrollo Social), Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación), Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud), Ministry of Public Security (Ministerio de Seguridad Pública), National Police (Policía Nacional), National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family, National Institute for Vocational Training and Human Development (Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional y Capacitación para el Desarrollo Humano), and local governments. The Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Público), Judiciary (Órgano Judicial), Ombudsman's Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) and other participants could cooperate within their respective powers. The group would meet at least twice a month; the bill also regulates emergency meetings, minutes, responsible institutions, deadlines and protection of individual information.

The protocol would bind competent public entities, and its activation would not create a criminal, police or administrative sanction record. It requires institutions to identify risk indicators, prepare a confidential report and forward it within a maximum of 24 hours, classify the risk, and activate interinstitutional care for medium, high or urgent cases. It then requires an interdisciplinary assessment, an individual, family or territorial plan, and measures such as school reintegration, mental health care, technical training and protection from threats. Where there are indications of crimes, it provides for coordination with public security and justice authorities without criminalizing a vulnerable minor. It requires follow-up at least every 30 days, more often for high or urgent risks, and closure through a reasoned, confidential report. It also provides for institutional contact persons, three prevention levels and family and community participation subject to the child's safety. Institutional failures would be reported to disciplinary authorities or the Public Prosecutor's Office, depending on the circumstances.

The National Fund for the Prevention of Youth Recruitment by Criminal Groups (Fondo Nacional de Prevención de Captación Criminal Juvenil) would finance educational, family, psychological, community, sports, cultural and territorial programs, among other actions. It would have no separate legal personality. It could receive budget appropriations, donations, cooperation funding, interinstitutional contributions, local government contributions and other lawful resources. The Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) would regulate its administration, with ministerial participation, budget oversight by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas) and auditing by the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República). Resources would prioritize areas identified through vulnerability indicators; implementing institutions would submit public reports every six months while protecting confidential data.

In the Criminal Code (Código Penal), the bill amends Article 330 to define a gang and set prison terms of six to ten years, or ten to twenty years for the listed aggravated circumstances. It adds Article 330-A to punish the recruitment or criminal use of minors with ten to fifteen years' imprisonment, or fifteen to twenty years under the specified circumstances. It amends Article 331 to increase certain penalties by one third to one half, subject to rules against counting the same circumstance twice. Finally, it restricts the use and exchange of personal data, retains the application of Law 40 of 1999 to adolescents in conflict with criminal law, requires protective coordination and provides for regulations within six months after promulgation. The proposal would take effect on the day following promulgation. Its provisions concern child protection, education, health, public security, justice and fiscal oversight institutions in the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá), as well as families, schools, community organizations and technical training programs.