The purpose of the course called “Protection and Differentiated Care between children and adolescents with relatives deprived of liberty” is to provide care with a rights-based approach to children and adolescents from the Penitentiary System and the National Civil Police in the time of visits to prisons.

It is an initiative of the Colectivo Artesana with the support of Unicef ​​and the Swedish Embassy. “For us it is a great satisfaction, it has been 15 years of work and we are seeing how this process that we had already been working on is being institutionalized, but that it was possible to specify and advance through the sentence reached in the Court,” said Andrea Barrios, director of Colectivo Artesana at the launch of the course, adding that while civil society organizations can contribute, it is important that the State assume responsibility.

More than 600 officials of the Penitentiary System and the National Civil Police will be receiving the training, which will be virtual and will last 4 weeks, where topics such as the rights of children and adolescents and the implementation of sentences will be addressed.

Also participating in the event were the Director of the Penitentiary System, Luis Rodolfo Escobar; the Deputy Director of Studies and Doctrine, Juan Antonio Aguilar Alfaro; the Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, María Eugenia Morales; and the Judge of First Instance for Children, Juan Orlando Calderón.

For his part, Escobar stated that “this training will contribute to the axis of prison transformation in favor of children and adolescents.” In turn, Alfaro indicated that the course will strengthen the capacities of Crime Prevention personnel to improve the treatment of children and adolescents who visit their relatives, as well as to give them decent treatment.