LA JUSTICIA PENAL JUVENIL EN LA JURISPRUDENCIA DE LA CORTE INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

(CON RESPECIAL REFERENCIA A CENTROAMÉRICA)

Abstract

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights from the judgment of the Case of the “Street Children” (Villagrán Morales and others) vs Guatemala gave content to the article 19 of the American Convention on Human Rights, based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also using international instruments that complement it. After that, it has been issued a number of resolutions, among which highlights the Advisory Opinion on the Legal Status and Human Rights of the Child, OC-17/2002, which highlighted the validity in the juvenile criminal justice of the guarantees that govern the right of adults, as well as the existence of additional guarantees, due to the condition of minors. From the above it has been issued several resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that have tried mass arrests, prison overcrowding, the extention of preventive detention and the custodial sentence, etc. Also they have declared losses to fundamental human rights, caused by arbitrary arrests, practice of torture and extrajudicial executions. However, there remains a large gap between the rights established in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the validity of those rights in the Latin American reality.