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National law and policies on minimum ages – El Salvador

 

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/65/Add.25, 22 October 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.9, 3 February 1993
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From initial report
29. Article 27 of the 1990 General Education Act stipulates that ‘Basic education shall comprise 9 years of study, from the first to the ninth grades; as a rule it shall be available to students from 7 to 15 years of age.’
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
11. With regard to work, the Constitution lays down a minimum age for admission to employment and prohibits the employment of minors in hazardous or unhealthy work. Thus, article 38, paragraph 10, stipulates that: "Persons under 14 years of age, and those who are older but subject by law to compulsory education, may not be employed in any type of work. Their employment may be authorized where it is deemed indispensable for their own or their family's subsistence, provided that it does not prevent them from meeting the minimum requirement of compulsory education.
Working hours for persons under 16 years shall not exceed 6 hours a day and
34 hours a week in any category of work.
The employment of persons under 18 years and of women in unhealthy and hazardous work is prohibited. Night work is also prohibited for persons under 18 years. The law shall determine which types of work are hazardous and unhealthy."
12. The Labour Code (1972), as amended in 1994, contains a number of regulations and prohibitions relating to minors. Article 105 reads as follows:
"The employment of persons under 18 years in hazardous or unhealthy work is prohibited. However, the employment of persons over 16 years may be authorized provided that their health, safety and morals are fully safeguarded and that they have received appropriate and specific education or vocational training in the relevant branch of activity.
The types of employment to which the present article is applicable shall be determined by the implementing regulations for this Code, following consultation of the Higher Council on Employment.
Prohibitions and restrictions in respect of the employment of minors shall not be applicable to work performed in general, vocational or technical schools or in other training institutions."
14. With regard to the minimum age for admission to employment, article 114 of the Labour Code establishes 12 years as the minimum age for minors, provided that the work is light and is not liable to harm their health or development or to interfere with their school attendance, their participation in vocational guidance or training programmes approved by a competent authority, or their ability to benefit from the education received.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 2nd report
19. The Code (art. 14) regulates the minimum age for marriage. It stipulates that, as a rule, persons under 18 years of age may not enter into marriage, save in exceptional circumstances. The last paragraph of the article stipulates that: "Notwithstanding the provision of paragraph 1 of this article, persons under 18 years may marry if they have reached the age of puberty, if they have had a child together, or if the woman is pregnant."
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
15. With regard to criminal matters, article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic stipulates: "Antisocial behaviour by minors constituting a crime or misdemeanour shall be subject to a special legal regime." This provision was incorporated, in the light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in the 1994 Juvenile Offenders Act, article 2 of which expressly states that: "This Act shall be applicable to persons of between 12 and 18 years of age. The measures envisaged in the present Act shall be applicable to minors aged between 16 and 18 years, whose responsibility as principals in or accessories to a criminal offence has been alleged or proved.
Antisocial behaviour constituting a crime or misdemeanour by minors aged between 12 and 16 years shall be subject to the procedure set forth in this Act. Once the acts constituting antisocial behaviour have been proved, the juvenile judge shall decide to apply to the minor any of the measures laid down in the Act establishing the Salvadoran Institute for the Protection of Children or the measures contemplated in this Act, provided that they serve the interests of the child.
Minors under 12 years of age who exhibit antisocial behaviour shall not be subject to this special legal regime or to the ordinary regime; they shall be exempt from responsibility and, where appropriate, their cases shall be reported immediately to the Salvadoran Institute for the Protection of Children with a view to ensuring their full protection."
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.25, 22 October 2003

Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.9, 3 February 1993