Draft bill 165.

Summary.

The draft bill proposes measures to prevent gangs and other criminal organizations from recruiting, exploiting, or using children and adolescents. Its purposes include comprehensive protection, continued education, family and psychosocial support, community recovery, and social reintegration. It establishes principles of confidentiality, proportionality, and non-stigmatization, and bars the criminalization of poverty, appearance, residence, or school dropout. It defines juvenile criminal recruitment, vulnerability to recruitment, and the early warning protocol for purposes of its provisions.

The bill would add those definitions to Law 285 of 2022 and bring recruitment prevention into the activities and targeted policies 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). It assigns functions concerning approval of national guidelines and the protocol, inclusion of programs and indicators in the national plan, and monitoring of results and resources. It also provides for institutional referrals, non-identifying statistics, and reports to the Board of Directors (Junta Directiva). Educational, technical, family, psychosocial, and community programs would be available to minors at risk, with coordination among education, health, and child protection authorities. Justices of the peace would have to initiate referrals and immediately notify the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and Family (Secretaría Nacional de Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia) in cases of serious threats or indications of criminal use.

The amendment creates the Permanent Technical Working Group for the Prevention of Juvenile Criminal Recruitment (Mesa Técnica Permanente de Prevención de Captación Criminal Juvenil) as an operational body of the Interinstitutional Commission (Comisión Interinstitucional). Its 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 Family, National Institute for Vocational Training and Human Development (Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional y Capacitación para el Desarrollo Humano), and local governments in priority areas. The Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público), Judicial Branch (Órgano Judicial), Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo), and other participants could cooperate through liaison arrangements. The group would meet at least twice a month. It would also have procedures for extraordinary meetings, notices, minutes, assigned responsibilities, deadlines, and follow-up, while protecting individual information.

The proposed protocol would bind competent public bodies and serve preventive and protective purposes. Activation would create neither a sanctioning record nor a presumption of criminal affiliation. It requires identification of objective warning signs, a confidential report submitted within 24 hours, risk classification, and activation of services when warranted. It then requires an interdisciplinary assessment, an individual, family, or territorial plan, and measures such as return to school, psychological care, technical training, or protection from threats. Where there are indications of an offense, it provides for coordination with public security and justice authorities. Follow-up would occur at least every 30 days, more often in serious cases; closure would require an assessment and a reasoned report. It also sets institutional duties, referral of failures to disciplinary authorities or the Public Prosecutor’s Office, designated contact points, prevention levels, and family and community participation subject to the minor’s safety.

The National Fund for the Prevention of Juvenile Criminal Recruitment (Fondo Nacional de Prevención de Captación Criminal Juvenil) would finance alerts, education, training, family support, psychological care, community activities, recovery of public spaces, and case follow-up. It would operate as a financing mechanism without separate legal personality. Possible funding sources include public appropriations, donations, cooperation, and agreements. Its administration would follow regulations issued by the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo), with ministerial participation, the budgetary responsibilities of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas), and oversight by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República). It would prioritize territories using objective indicators. Implementing institutions would submit public semiannual reports while withholding confidential information about minors.

In the Criminal Code (Código Penal), the bill redefines a gang and amends the penalties under Article 330, including higher penalties in circumstances involving minors, territorial violence, weapons, and specified offenses. It adds Article 330-A to punish specific acts of recruiting or using minors, with enhanced penalties based on the intended offense, the offender’s role, the location, or a caregiving relationship. It amends Article 331 to increase penalties in specified circumstances, subject to rules against counting the same aggravating factor twice. Information about minors would be confidential and subject to restricted access. The preventive measures would not replace the adolescent criminal responsibility regime under Law 40 of 1999. The bill also provides for institutional coordination and regulations within six months after promulgation, and would take effect the following day.

The proposal concerns child protection, education, health, social development, public security, justice, and fiscal oversight authorities in the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá). It could also concern families and caregivers, schools and training centers, local governments, community organizations, and entities implementing prevention programs.