Abstract

MENDOZA MOLINA, Mónica. INCLUSION OF CHILDREN IN TRUTH COMMISSIONS: GUATEMALA AND ARGENTINA. Novum Jus [online]. 2021, vol.15, n.spe, pp.127-153.  Epub June 12, 2023. ISSN 1692-6013.  https://doi.org/10.14718/novumjus.2021.15.e.3.

This document is the result of a qualitative research with a documentary hermeneutical approach, which sought to determine the ways in which children were included in the truth commissions developed in Argentina and Guatemala-after the military dictatorship and the armed conflict, respectively-by identifying common or differential elements and analyzing the role of related international regulations. To this end, the commissions’ reports, called in both cases “Never Again,” were analyzed. In general, the cases are very different; Argentina only included the crime of forced disappearance in its investigations, while Guatemala included many other human rights violations, which have a direct impact on approaching childhood. In both cases, children and adolescents were used as “spoils of war,” as a message to stop “the bad seed,” and as an instrument to inflict pain on parents. It is possible to identify the common crimes of forced disappearance and identity theft, which Argentina has been confronting with determination and hard work for more than four decades, while Guatemala shows little progress and limited efforts, despite this being one of the recommendations of the Commission for Historical Clarification. The role played by international regulations, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is decisive for understanding the differential affectations of children in armed conflicts and serious violations of human rights. Likewise, the monitoring carried out by entities like the Committee on the Rights of the Child is relevant in these cases, but not decisive. For future works, it would be pertinent to inquire about the role of political activism that stolen children and adolescents perform today.

Keywords : childhood; truth commissions; human rights; Argentina; Guatemala.

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