The Court grabs “perpetual disabilities” for rapists of minors – Courts – Justice

With a vote of seven against two, the Constitutional Court conditioned a norm that it disqualified persons convicted of sexual crimes against persons under 18 years of age to exercise positions, trades or professions that involve a direct and habitual relationship with minors.

The conditional rule is the first article of Law 1918 of 2018, demanded by a research group from the University of Manizales.

The high court conditioned that law in the sense that the duration of the inability to exercise those positions it must be subject to the time limits established for said penalty in the Penal Code.

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That means that the high court found that It is not constitutional to declare a “perpetual disability” or forever for those convicted of sexual crimes against children and adolescents.

In addition, the Constitutional Court struck down a part of this law that established that it was the responsibility of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) to determine the terms under which this disability operated.

Thus, the high court established that It is not the ICBF that is responsible for making this regulation, but that competence belongs to the Congress of the Republic. That said, until Congress regulates which are those trades or jobs in which there is such inability, this cannot be applied.

(In context: They ask to knock down disability of child rapists).

The research group of the University of Manizales had demanded this norm considering that it affects the rights of the post-sentenced to resocialization and their dignity, but it also ended up being counterproductive against the same victims, since it put those who had already paid a jail sentence in a situation of “nothing to lose”, because they could never return to the labor market.

Other articles of the law had also been sued but the Court did not overthrow them. For example, the high court declared enforceable articles that create the registry of disabilities for sexual crimes against minors, administered by the Ministry of Defense and the National Police.

(It may interest you: They sue the law of life imprisonment for rapists before the Court)

The decision of the Constitutional Court not to consider perpetual disqualifications valid is also important in the face of the debate that the high court will have regarding the lawsuits that have been announced against the law of life imprisonment for rapists and murderers of children.