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Constitutional Court entitles adolescents to sexual life in Ecuador
Posted On 23 Jul 2018
Ecuadornews:
The Constitutional Court ruled that adolescents (12 to 18 years of age, according to the Children’s Code) have the right to enjoy a “satisfactory and risk-free sexual life” and to decide on their reproductive life “in a free, responsible and informed “, as subjects full of rights and by virtue of the principle of autonomy.
This statement is made after analyzing a protection action rejected in the first instance and presented, in 2011, by Marcel Ramírez, then president of the Citizen Foundation Forever Dad, against the campaign to prevent teenage pregnancy of the Ministry of Health, which included the delivery of condoms to adolescents. Ramírez argued that the portfolio failed to take into account the parents point of view before such a campaign and that undermined their constitutional duty to educate their children.
The Constitutional Court, in a resolutive part of the judgment issued on July 13, replied that: It is only for the adolescent “to decide on his sexual and reproductive health and life, basing his decisions on the tools granted by the family and the State.”
Salim Zaidán, from “Plataforma Unión por Nuestros Hijos” (Union for our children plarform), rejected it. Believes that part of a too interventionist vision of the State in the family and goes against the parental authority over the children that serves to ensure their care until they are of age and can fully exercise their decision-making capacity. (I)
