Second chance
Lawmakers tomorrow may block proposal to reduce the age of criminal responsibility approved in the first round
In the week that the Child and Adolescent Act turns 25 years old, human rights organizations and movements are joining forces to try and defeat, in the second round of voting, the amendment to Constitutional Amendment 171/1993 that lowers the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16. The amendment is on the agenda tomorrow in the Lower House of Congress. If at least 308 lawmakers vote in favor, it will proceed to the Senate.
On Friday, July 10, 102 members of Congress from 14 parties submitted a writ of mandamus to the Supreme Court calling for the annulment of the result of the first round of voting. The approval by 323 votes occurred just one day after the amendment had been blocked by the same house – in violation of article 60 of the Constitution that prevents discussion on matters that have been rejected, even in the form of new proposals, in the same legislative session.
When accepting the case, Justice Celso de Mello claimed that there was no urgency to issue the mandamus, since the president of the Lower House, Eduardo Cunha, had said that the vote would only take place after the congressional recess, in August. This Monday, July 13, eight civil society organizations warned the Supreme Court of the imminence of the vote. In an official letter to the president of the court, Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, the organizations informed that the procedural time frame of five sessions between the two rounds had been observed and that voting could now occur at any moment – the agenda for tomorrow’s session already includes discussion on the matter.
Click here to read the document in full.
The organizations also emphasized that civil society participation in the debate was limited in the two previous votes, undermining the public debate and the democratic process. “There is no harm in issuing the mandamus before ruling on the merit of the constitutionality of the legislative process,” reads the document. “The harm lies in permitting a constitutional amendment proposal to continue its passage in breach of the very constitutional principles that govern the democratic rule of law.”
See here the list with the Twitter profiles of all deputies (who have accounts on the social network) and demand that parliamentarians vote against the reduction of legal age.
