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, after the judgment on the Case of “Street Children” (Villagrán Morales et al.) vs Guatemala, provided content to 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. Subsequently, it has issued a number of resolutions, including the Advisory Opinion on the Legal Status and Human Rights of the Child, OC-17/2002, which highlighted the validity of the guarantees governing the laws for adults in juvenile criminal justice, as well the existence of additional guarantees arising from the status of minors. Based on the above, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has issued several resolutions dealing with mass arrests, prison overcrowding, etc. Additionally, there have been statements on violations of 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.