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National law and policies on minimum ages – Argentina

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Sources:

2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.10, 26 February 2002
Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add.2, 23 August 1993
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 2nd report
421. The Constitution and legislation of the Argentine State guarantee the provision of compulsory and free education throughout the education system.
424. Where specific legislation is concerned, Act No. 1.420 of 1884, the forerunner of the Federal Education Act (No. 24.195 of 1993), made school attendance compulsory for all children from ages six to 14 and provided for free and progressive secular education at the primary level (seven grades).
425. Article 10 of the Federal Education Act extends the period of compulsory school attendance to 10 years (one year in a kindergarten/reception class at age five, plus nine years of basic general education), while article 39 stipulates that education shall be free: “The national State, the provinces and the municipality of Buenos Aires shall guarantee, by allocating funds to their respective education budgets, the principle of free education in publicly funded education services at all levels and under all special systems”.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
544. The Employment Contracts Act (No. 20.744) contains the current legislation on the prohibition of the performance of paid work by minors:
“Article 187. Minors of either sex aged over 14 and under 18 may enter into any contact of employment subject to the conditions laid down in articles 32 et seq. of this Act. All regulations, collective employment agreements and wage scales shall guarantee minors equal pay when they work the same number of hours a day or perform tasks usually performed by adults. The apprenticeship and vocational training of minors aged over 14 and under 18 shall be governed by the relevant legislation in force or by legislation adopted for this purpose”.
“Article 189. Employers are prohibited from employing minors aged under 14 in any kind of activity, whether for profit or not. This prohibition does not extend to minors employed, with the permission of the school attendance office, in enterprises employing only family members, provided that the work is not harmful or dangerous. Minors of school age but older than the age indicated above may not work unless they have completed their compulsory schooling, except with the express permission of the school attendance office and when their employment is regarded as essential to their own subsistence or that of their direct relatives, and provided that they complete, in a satisfactory manner, the minimum period of compulsory schooling”.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From initial report
71. Act No. 23,515, of recent date, stipulates that women must be 16 years of age and men 18 in order to marry:
“Art. 166, para. 5. If the woman is aged under 16 or the man under 18, this shall constitute an impediment to matrimony.” If minors have not reached the minimum age for matrimony, the impediment may be lifted only with the permission of the courts, even if the permission of the parents has been granted; this decision is known as judicial dispensation.
“Art. 167. It shall be possible lawfully to enter into matrimony in the circumstances defined in article 166, paragraph 5, subject to prior judicial dispensation.”
“Art. 168. Even if minors have been legally emancipated, they may not marry one another or another person without the consent of their parents or of the person exercising parental authority, or failing either of these without the consent of their guardian, or failing this without the consent of the judge.”
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
615. Act No. 22.278 of 25 August 1980, as amended by Act No. 22.803, established the prisons regime applicable to minors. It reads in part:
“Article 1. No punishment may be imposed on any person under the age of 16 years. Nor may any punishment be imposed on a person under the age of 18 years for a privately actionable offence, an offence carrying a custodial sentence of not more than two years, or an offence punishable by a fine or disqualification.” […]
“Article 2. Punishment may be imposed on a person between the ages of 16 and 18 years who has committed an offence other than the ones specified in article 1.”
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.10, 26 February 2002
Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add.2, 23 August 1993