On August 12, 2015, Organic Law 8/2015 of July 22 entered into force, modifying the system of protection for children and adolescents and establishing new, more agile and summary judicial procedures, namely:

1.- Entry of a minor into a specific protection center for children with behavioral problems: It will be necessary to obtain prior authorization from the Judge of First Instance.

Given the specialties of these centers, their complexity, conditions and needs are expected as a last resort and will have the character of “educational”, use security measures and restriction of fundamental rights. Needless to say, these security measures imply “legalizing” what was already de facto: containment, isolation, personal and material records, drug administration, restriction of visits and communications or departures.

2.- Entry into domiciles for execution of administrative decisions: The Judge of First Instance and not those of the Administrative Court will have the power to immediately agree, without hearing the owner or occupant of the domicile the entry in said domicile to execute a resolution Administrative.

What else does the Síndic de Greuges, Don Rafael Ribó warn about in a worrisome way about the use of physical restraint in juvenile centers? What does it matter that the citizens and legal operators have repeatedly asked for the elimination of containment and isolation as a technique to be applied in an arbitrary and disproportionate manner by the Administration as punishments for protected minors? How can an “educational” program be a punishment for containment, with restriction of fundamental rights?

The Report of the Catalan Authority for the Prevention of Torture in 2013 warned about the lack of cultural mediators in this type of centers, as well as failures in supervision and monitoring in those private centers with places agreed with the DGAIA. The human being, gentlemen, has no price but dignity, and recalling the words of Gandhi: I am opposed to violence because when it seems that it does well, good is only temporary; The evil that he does is permanent, so I share with him that it is necessary to understand that obeying unjust laws, contrary to the dignity of the human being, makes that no tyranny can dominate us.

Sara Benjelali

Lawyer