Effective intersectorality: comprehensive protection of children and adolescents

The seminar on effective intersectorality held at the Universidad San Sebastián was attended by the Undersecretary for Children, the National Director of Better Childhood and the head of the Disease Prevention and Control Division of the Undersecretary for Public Health, representatives of the Ciudad del Niño Foundation and CIDENI.

The System of Guarantees and Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, which entered into force on March 15, 2022, establishes that The Chilean State is the one that has the obligation to exercise a convening and active role in the coordination of the different public and private actors of the world of childhood; as well as to ensure access to the different services required by children and adolescents.

In this context, the seminar “Effective intersectorality, a requirement for the comprehensive protection and social reintegration of children and adolescents” organized by Children’s City Foundationin collaboration with the Ibero-American Center for Children’s Rights (CIDENI) and the race of Evening Law of the San Sebastian Universitydeal the implementation plan for this comprehensive system and the role of civil society in this new regulatory framework.

At the meeting, the undersecretary for Children, Yolanda Pizarro, He presented the Guarantee System Implementation Plan with a focus on Intersectorality; the Head of the Disease Prevention and Control Division of the Ministry of Health Fernando Gonzalez, He spoke about the challenges of Intersectoriality in health matters; the Executive Director of CIDENI, Esther Valenzuelaaddressed the role of civil society in the system of guarantees and comprehensive protection, as well as its challenges and contributions from comparative experience, while the Director of Social Operations of Fundación Ciudad del Niño, Maria Theresa Sepulvedaaddressed specialized Protection, as a systemic and territorial approach.

“For us as a University, it is a great joy to be able to have these spaces that allow us to connect with the environment, where we bring to the fore the relationship that should exist between society and children and adolescents, in addition to to be able to study this new legal body that comes to modernize prevention and strengthen the relationship we have with our children and even more, with those who are violated”, said the USS Evening Law academic, Carlos Cruz-Coke.

Principle of Intersectorality

Article 21 of the law establishes the Principle of Intersectorality, which means that the different government institutions and civil society must act, by legal imperative, in an organized and coordinated manner in their areas of competence and activities, referring to the execution of actions of protection, promotion, prevention, restitution or reparation that allow access, exercise and effective enjoyment of the rights of children and adolescents.

To the existing institutions, such as the Specialized Protection Service, the Ombudsman for Children, the Family Courts and the collaborating organizations and foundations themselves, a new one will be added, with the creation of the Local Children’s Offices (OLN). “A true one-stop shop, to receive the citizen demand on the violation of the rights of children and adolescents, and refer them to the different organizations that provide protection and reparationbut they will also be offices with an educational role, for the promotion of rights”, explained the undersecretary.

“We appreciate these spaces for conversation and debate, because it is the way in which we are also landing a topic that is not always easy to understand and understand, and where the State, but also civil society, has an enormous task and responsibility,” he said. the Undersecretary for Children, adding that the meeting “It allows us to land and glimpse not only the knots that must be resolved, but also to appreciate the complete panorama of how the public and private offer must be articulated. That is the great objective that the law has and that will allow us a paradigm shift, a way of seeing children and adolescents from a perspective focused on their rights, and that will be possible only if there is intersectoral work.”