Decree PCM-27-2024

This decree approves the National Policy for Early Childhood, Childhood and Adolescence 2024-2033, which comprehensively protects the rights of children and adolescents in Honduras. The policy focuses on three objectives: ensuring health in safe environments, access to quality education, and protection against violence, through actions by all State institutions.

Whereas the Constitution of the Republic establishes that the President has charge of the General Administration of the State and its representation; having among its powers the direction of the general policy of the State and representing it, issuing Agreements, Decrees and issuing Regulations and Resolutions in accordance with the Law, administering Public Finance and the others conferred upon her by the Constitution and the laws (article 245, numerals 2, 11, 19 and 45).

Whereas the General Law of Public Administration provides that the President of the Republic has charge of the supreme direction and coordination of the Centralized and Decentralized Public Administration. The President of the Republic in the exercise of her functions may act by herself or in Council of Ministers (article 11).

Whereas according to what is established in the General Law of Public Administration, it is an authority of the Council of State Secretaries to create, modify, merge, divide or eliminate dependencies of the Public Administration (article 22, numeral 3).

Whereas in accordance with what is established in the Constitution of the Republic, the family and childhood are under the protection of the State, which has the obligation to protect them. Likewise, it is established that children shall enjoy the protection provided for in international agreements that safeguard their rights and that the laws for the protection of childhood are of public order (articles 111 and 119).

Whereas the Code of Childhood and Adolescence establishes that it is an aim of the State the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents. Likewise, it determines that the State must ensure the institutional framework and human, technical and financial resources that are necessary to create programs and projects aimed at the promotion, guarantee and protection of the rights of childhood, the family and motherhood.

Whereas the State takes as its own the rights enshrined in favor of childhood, with the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, by means of Decree No. 75-90 of the National Congress, dated July 24, 1990 and published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta", edition number 26,259 dated August 10, 1990, as a foundational instrument that brings together the essential principles to guarantee children access to their general well-being and best interests; as well as its Optional Protocols, the one related to the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and the Use of Children in Pornography ratified on May 8, 2022 and the one related to the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts ratified on August 14, 2002.

Whereas the State of Honduras has adopted and ratified numerous international instruments that promote comprehensive protection of childhood and the recognition of its condition as human beings with specific rights and guarantees, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among others.

Whereas the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends to the States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the promulgation of laws, the establishment of coordination and monitoring bodies, the formulation and implementation of policies, programs and services that have as their objective to guarantee the effectiveness of the rights of children and adolescents.

Whereas by Executive Decree number PCM 020-2019 the Comprehensive System for the Guarantee of Rights of Childhood and Adolescence in Honduras (SIGADENAH) was created, as the set of organs, entities, mechanisms and instances, public and private, articulated at the national, departmental and municipal levels, which constitute the fundamental framework for the promotion of rights, the prevention, protection, defense and reparation of harm in the event of violation of those rights, through intersectoral policies, programs and actions aimed at guaranteeing the rights of all girls, boys and adolescents in a comprehensive manner (article 1).

Whereas by Executive Decree number PCM 41-2023 published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta" on October 13, 2023, in its edition number 36,357, the State Secretariat in the Offices of Childhood, Adolescence and Family (SENAF) was created, as the entity responsible for the leadership, formulation, coordination, management, monitoring and evaluation of public policy and regulations for the guarantee and comprehensive protection of the rights of childhood, adolescence and family, as well as specialized programs and services in the matter (article 1).

Whereas on March 21, 2024 during the Tenth Ordinary Session of the National Council of the Comprehensive System for the Guarantee of Rights of Childhood and Adolescence in Honduras (SIGADENAH), presided by the State Secretariat in the Office of the Presidency (SEP), approved the "National Policy of Early Childhood, Childhood and Adolescence 2024-2033", as a tool for the guarantee and fulfillment of rights of childhood, with a comprehensive approach aimed at the prevention, promotion and protection of the rights of early childhood, childhood and adolescence, agreeing that the same would be referred for approval by means of an Executive Decree of the Presidency in Council of State Secretaries.

Whereas article 8 of the Regulation of Organization, Operation and Powers of the Executive Branch establishes that as far as the supreme direction and coordination of the Centralized and Decentralized Public Administration corresponds to her, the President of the Republic defines the plans and programs of the Government, directs its tasks and guides the activities of the State Secretariats and autonomous institutions in accordance with the Law.

Whereas the Government Plan to Refound Honduras of the Constitutional President Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento contemplates as a proposal in matters of childhood, the design of public policies with direct participation of children, adolescents and families, as well as the creation of a public policy aimed at preventing and reducing migration of unaccompanied girls and boys, ensuring protection measures for those repatriated, social reinsertion and generation of opportunities to improve quality of life (numeral 13.1. Childhood. III and VI).