Thursday April 13, 2023 | 4:19 p.m.
The National Senate unanimously approved the Lucio Law, which seeks to prevent violence and abuse in childhood, promoted after the case of Lucio Dupuy, the five-year-old boy beaten to death in La Pampa, for which his mother was convicted and the couple of this. The child’s grandfather, Ramón Dupuy, who arrived at Congress along with other relatives and demanded the approval of the initiative, was present at the venue.
Ten senators from the different benches participated as speakers to present on this initiative that, as estimated, was approved unanimously.
Representing the Frente de Todos (FdT), the first speaker, Senator Daniel Bensusán (La Pampa), expressed that “the violence of our childhoods pervades the entire society and challenges those of us who have institutional and political responsibilities.”
The senator highlighted “the importance of legislating on the subject to avoid the violence that was exercised against Lucio Dupuy”, asked that “they stop being swept under the rug (this type of incident)” and considered that with this law they will be “responding to in a mature way as a society”.
For the opposition, María Belén Tapia, senator for Santa Cruz, said that Lucio’s grandfather was “an example” because “he drew strength from where perhaps he did not know he had it” to demand justice and recalled that all political spaces “have intentions to legislate” on this type of case for a long time.
What is the Lucio Law about
The so-called Lucio Law, which seeks to prevent violence and abuse in childhood, establishes continuous and mandatory training, awareness campaigns and a larger budget.
The project creates the Federal Training Plan of a continuous, permanent and obligatory nature in the Rights of Boys, Girls and Adolescents (NNyA) -plan that gives its name to the law- aimed at all people who perform public service in all their levels and hierarchies in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.
The planned training can be extended to provincial and municipal administrations and social, sports, recreational and cultural organizations.
Senaf, under the Ministry of Social Development, will be the law enforcement authority, so it will have an “immediate and direct obligation” in the training and awareness campaigns that must be carried out, in which they already have “some experience accumulated”.
One of the articles of the law also proposes the creation of awareness campaigns so that the entire population becomes involved in the promotion and defense of the rights of children and adolescents. Likewise, another central axis is the protection of whistleblowers in cases of possible violation, seeking “the confidentiality of the whistleblower’s identity and the protection of its integrity.”
The law emphasizes the duty to communicate a violation or threat of rights and the duty to receive and process a complaint by the public official, in accordance with the provisions of Law 26,061 on Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Boys and Law 27,455 on Abuse in the childhood.
The bill arose after the murder of Lucio in November 2021 in Santa Rosa, La Pampa, for which his mother, Magdalena Espósito Valenti, and her partner, Abigail Páez, were convicted.
